It’s
not where you go or what you do,
It’s
who you take along for the ride.
-
Wil Rogers
The
horse went down hard.
Hannibal
Heyes heard his cousin cry out and whirled his horse with a curse.
He knew he had been pushing
them too hard through the unfamiliar, snow covered terrain, but the unexpected
late storm had made taking the chance vital if they were ever to reach shelter.
Racing back he leapt from his horse to find his
cousin laying stunned face down and his horse sprawled in agony, both the
victim of black ice.
“Kid”
he said reaching the man who moaned and tried to roll over. “Take it
easy,” he said gently helping
him and winced at the gash over his right temple.
“Heyes?” Kid asked distantly and didn’t look at him.
“Yea, yea its me, can you stand? Are you hurt?”
Kid took a moment to focus his gaze and finally
blinked in recognition.
“I’m fine,” he went to take Heyes’s hand and missed
it.
Heyes groaned and caught it and pulled him up and
wrapping the arm around his shoulder led him over to a fallen tree and set him
down.
“Here let me look at you,” he said dusting the snow
off him and lifting his chin up. His
forehead was bleeding and there was a mean bruise on his right cheek.
“Heyes quit fussing,” Kid said irritably as he tried
to still the flow of blood from the cut with his handkerchief.
“Stop it, if you could sit a horse I wouldn’t have
to!” his partner said sharply trying to cover his concern.
“My horse…” Kid said suddenly remembering.
“Hang on I’ll check him out.”
He hurried over, but was sure what he had seen when
he had helped his cousin would only be confirmed.
“Leg busted Kid, I’m gonna put him down,” Heyes
sighed and a bullet later the animal was gone.
“Great all the way out here in a storm and one
horse,” Kid said unsteadily trying to rise.
“Hang on, don’t go rushing off,” Heyes said catching
his arm before he almost fell over.
“Heyes we got problems,” Kid said closing his eyes
and looking like he didn’t want to have to ever open them again.
“Let’s just get you somewhere warm and then you can
complain in comfort,” his friend said retrieving Kid’s saddlebags and supplies
from his horse.
Then turning back to his cousin he helped him up and
over to his horse.
It took a moment, but finally they were both mounted
with Kid in back of him.
“Heyes this isn’t gonna work, its at least 20 miles
till the next town,” Kid said. “No way we can outrun that storm riding double.”
“Don’t see why not,” his partner said mysteriously
trying to keep his interest as he kicked the horse into moving. “We did it before, course you were a lot
younger.”
“What?”
Kid said and Heyes grinned, he had caught his attention. He needed him conscious if they were gonna
make it.
“Surely you remember our time as pony express
riders?”
*************************
Remember Jed?
It was November, day after the big election,
1860. The men folk had been saddled
with taking us with them to the big cattle sale in Marysville cause my Ma was
sick after losing the baby. Give the
women a little peace and quiet from us, they said. Never could understand what they meant, I always thought we were
pretty well behaved, peaceable children, cept maybe you, you were always in
trouble.
Remember
how worried your Ma was? I think she
lectured Grandpa Curry for 20 minutes about looking after us. Finally he just kissed her on the forehead
and said if he lost us he’d buy her two more just as nice.
It was my first stagecoach ride;
I was what about 8? I guess you were six.
Remember how your Pa scrunched you in next to him and Grandpa cause you
kept bouncing off the seat? You sure
were little, I’m glad I was never that little.
It was cold too, no snow yet,
but it was coming. Still I’ll never
forget that ride. All bundled up, just
us men folk, grandpa even gave me a sip of whiskey out of his flask. Course then you wanted one and Pa saw and
laid into grandpa that our Ma’s would skin them alive if we came back with
stories of drinking.
We were carrying $200, that
seemed liked so much then, guess it still is.
We were gonna buy us a real Hereford bull from England. My Pa knew all about them. I did too; I’d read everything he brought
home about them. He had told me I could
help pick it out.
Remember how serious they all
got when they talked about the election and what the results would mean if Mr.
Lincoln won? I told them I would have
voted for Mr. Lincoln and I remember your Pa asking me real serious like, why?
I told him it was because he had
picked a Hannibal to be his Vice President.
They all laughed and my pa said
Hannibal Hamlin was a good man and would fight the expansion of slave states,
but he’d never last a second term cause of it.
Then Grandpa said maybe the next
Hannibal in the White House would be a Heyes.
What do you think about that Kid?
Me, President! Might not be a
bad thing, can’t be harder than leading a bunch of outlaws, from what I’ve
heard Congress ain’t much different.
Heyes glanced back; his cousin
was hanging on, but barely.
Clearing his throat, he pushed
the horse harder and settled in for a long ride.
*****************************
They had arrived at the Adams
farmhouse late and he had never forgot the warm welcome the old couple had gave
them. The farm was on the outskirts of
town on a lonely stretch of road, but would be a perfect base from which to
visit the cattle auction.
Mrs. Adams had quickly bustled them over to the fire with hot
cider and cookies and Jed had fallen asleep mid cookie. He guessed he had as well because when he
awoke the next morning he was curled up next to Jed in a makeshift bed by the
fire.
The first thing he had noticed
was the sun was up too high and he jumped up concerned they had all over slept
and missed the auction.
“Han I lost my cookie,” had been
Jed’s first sleepy words, but he had made right for the kitchen anxious to find
his father.
“Well there you two are!” Mrs.
Adams smiled wiping her hands on her apron and turning from the bread she was
kneading. “I thought you were both gonna
sleep all day.”
“Where’s my Pa?” he had asked
suspicious.
“I’m afraid the men have all
left Hannibal darlin’”
He stared at her incredulously;
this simply was not possible. His
father needed him, he had said so. He
was going to help him pick the bull they needed.
“No, he needs me…” he said
bottom lip trembling.
“Hannibal honey don’t be upset,
you were both just sleeping so sound and there is a storm coming in. You can see the bull when they bring it back
tonight.”
He had just stared at her,
devastated. The men had went, that’s
what she said, they hadn’t considered him one of them. Miserable he had wandered back to the living
room to the big window seat and just stared out ignoring her offers of
breakfast.
“Han ain’t you hungry?” Jed had
said coming over ignoring his own hunger over his concern for his cousin.
“They left us Jed, you maybe I
can see, but I’m 8, I could have helped.”
“Sure you could have Han,” Jed
has said climbing up to sit next to him.
If Han was going to miserable, he was going to be miserable too, there
were rules.
“I mean I know stuff.”
“Sure do, you’re the smartest
person I know, cept maybe Grandpa, Grandpa knows everything.”
Hannibal nodded, that went
without saying.
“Hey who’s that?” Jed had
suddenly pointed out the window and leaping off the seat ran to the door.
Squinting he peered out into the
farmyard to see what Jed’s sharp eyes had caught and he had missed.
It was man, and he was hurt.
“Mrs. Adams!” he yelled
following his cousin out the door.
It took all three of them to get
him inside. He was young, Mrs. Adams
guessed no more than 16 and he had been leading a lame horse and holding his
side in agony.
“Lay him down here boys,” she
had ordered and they had gingerly placed him on the bed in the front room. “Now watch him while I get some water.”
“You okay?” Jed had asked softly
and the young man had opened his eyes.
“Horse went down, threw me…my
horse…”
“He’s outside, we’ll take care
of him,” Heyes had said trying to calm him.
“Don’t understand, pony
express…I gotta get the mail to Washington City, I’m carrying the election
results,” he whispered in pain.
“Washington City?” Mrs. Adams
said coming back into the room with a bowl of water and a cloth. “Young man that is 25 miles from here and
from what I can tell you got at least two busted ribs, you aren’t going
anywhere.”
“But the mail, the results,
California has to know…”
“Well California can know
later. Now you just rest. As soon as my husband gets back tonight
we’ll send for the doctor, but I’ll rig up something temporary till he
does. Hannibal? Jedediah?
You go see to his horse.”
“Yes ma’am,” Heyes had said.
“The bags,” the rider
whispered. “Bring me the bags.”
Shrugging on some clothes the
boys had quickly hurried out to see to the horse, which while lame, didn’t seem
to have anything else wrong with it.
Between them they unsaddled it
and brushed it down and fed it, placing it in the stall next to Mr. Adams pony
Quicksilver.
“That the mail?” Jed had asked excited
staring at the 4 small leather sacks fastened over a square holder that fit
over the saddle.
“Yea we better bring it to him,
sounded real important,” Heyes had advised.
Quickly they had hurried back in
with the satchels and presented them to the rider who had clutched them
relieved.
“You a real Pony Express Rider?”
Jed had asked fascinated, pulling up a chair next to the bed after Mrs. Adams
had left.
“Yea, been riding almost 2
months now. Picked me for this run
cause I’m young and fast, some say the fastest.”
“You ever seen and Indians?” Jed
went on. Jed loved adventure stories
and was deep in hero worship of any one who actually lived one.
“Yup near Platte River and
another time I had wolves nearly 20 of them, follow me for nigh on 15 miles!”
“Your awful young to be a rider
aren’t you?” Heyes had asked not liking the way Jed was watching the boy in
admiration. He was only supposed to do
that with him.
“That’s the way they like them,
prefer orphans. Makes a man of you real
quick.”
“Must be terrible hard and
dangerous,” Jed has said in awe.
“Don’t look that hard,” Heyes
had said brushing the difficulties aside.
“Why I bet I could do it.”
“Your ma would kill you,” Jed
said with great certainty.
“My ma ain’t here,” Heyes had replied
and Jed had looked worried as he watched an idea light up in his eyes. “Might be just the thing to show my Pa I am
man enough to do things with him too.”
“Han what you thinking?” Jed
said nervously.
“I can deliver that mail!”
The rider looked at him, hope in
his eyes.
“You think?”
“Sure!” Heyes had said ignoring
the wide-eyed look of horror his cousin was giving him. He was all ready hearing the cheers of the
crowd as he rode into the station.
“You just gotta stick to the
main road, doesn’t vary much, stay north after the river. It’s only 25 miles and as little as you are
you could make good time with a fast horse, be there in under 3 hours.”
“Han I don’t think you’re grown
enough…” Jed said.
“Okay I’ll do it,” Heyes had
said convinced.
“Okay look in my bag there’s a
Bible, company gave me that, in the flap is the oath, you gotta swear to that
for you ride.”
Heyes pulled out the calf
skinned Bible and did as he was told raising his right hand and saying:
“I, Hannibal Heyes, do hereby swear before the Great
and Living God, that during my engagement and while I am an employee of
Russell, Majors and Waddell, I will, under no circumstances, use profane
language; that I will drink no intoxicating liquors; that I will not quarrel or
fight with any other employee of the firm, and that in every respect I will
conduct myself honestly, be faithful in my duties and so direct all my actions
as to win the confidence of my employers.
So help me God.”
“So help me God,” Jed echoed.
“What you saying?” Han said
staring back at him. “You ain’t going.”
“Yes I am.”
“You can’t your only six. Six year olds can’t be delivering news about
who the next President is.”
“Can too! And you’re only 8, besides he’s my president
too and if you don’t let me come along for the ride I’ll tell.
“Snitch!”
“Am not!”
“Don’t worry about him,” Heyes
told the rider only to realize he was unconscious.
“You ain’t going Jed and that’s
that,” Heyes whispered to his cousin and picking up the bags strode purposely
out of the room, the newest employee of the Pikes Peak Express Company.
He had easily lied to Mrs. Adams
that they were going off to play in the barn and between her baking and the
rider she was so distracted she welcomed them entertaining themselves merely
warning them not to go far because the storm was do any time.
“Why can’t I go?” Jed had
continued on following him to the barn and helping him to saddle Quicksilver.
“Because I said so that’s why,”
Heyes had answered and after several awkward tries threw the mailbags over.
Suddenly the weight of what he
was about to do hit him. 25 miles was a
long way and the weather didn’t look good.
The most he had ever rode was the 11 miles into town and then he hadn’t
been alone. He suddenly didn’t feel as
grown up.
Taking a deep breath he pulled himself up into the
saddle and looked down and saw Jed staring up at him trying not to cry.
“I wanna help Han, I can help,
you need me. We’ve rid together before,
I’m light I won’t slow you down and we can take turns riding front, give you a
break so you can eat.”
“I ain’t bringing no food.”
“Yea you are I packed you this,”
Jed said offering up a bag. “Even gave
you my cookie.”
Heyes bent down and took it
touched by his friend’s thoughtfulness.
“Please Han, let me come along
for the ride, I ain’t never had a real adventure before not a big one like this
and you always say I can come on your adventures, please Han?”
His eyes were filled with tears
now and suddenly the idea of having company; someone to be brave with didn’t
sound so bad.
“Oh all right, but the minute
you whine I’m leaving you understand?”
“Oh yes Han!” he said face
bursting into a grin that lit the room as he scrambled up behind his cousin.
“You’re just along for the ride,
remember that, I’m the pony express rider.”
“Okay Han just along for the
ride.”
******************************
“We must have been crazy,” Kid
said his voice ragged, but at least he was conscious.
“We were and I let you come,
what was I thinking,” Heyes said shaking his head.
“Yea but I didn’t whine,” Kid
had to point out.
“No just saved my life is all.
“Well couldn’t let you get all
the glory,” Kid said trying to smile but more of his weight had shifted against
him and Heyes wondered how long before he would have to tie Kid to him to keep
him from slipping off.
“You always were a grand
stander,” Heyes sighed and had an idea.
“So tell me how do you remember what happened next?”
“At first,” Kid said
remembering. “It was wonderful….”
****************************
We
were going so fast, the wind whistling by us, you must have taken the brunt of
it cause I don’t remember being cold.
Ya know its funny the first time we got chased by a posse I thought of
that and wasn’t as scared as I should have been.
We must have covered half of it
before the wind picked up and it started to snow. I remember tugging on you and making you stop so I could catch my
breath. It was then I saw how cold you were and offered to take the front, but
you refused, said you were fine. You
never could lie to me, I knew you were bluffing and getting scared too.
Heyes smiled, “I was terrified
and I had completely lost my bearings at that point, didn’t have a clue if we
were on the right trail or not, but you knew.
You always did have the most uncanny sense of direction.”
“Man said north, just knew it
was that way.”
“Except I wouldn’t listen to
you,” Heyes sighed.
“Don’t let it eat on you Heyes,
you’ve gotten better at doing that,” Kid said.
“I just wish I had started doing
it younger, was that a fight!”
************************
“It ain’t that way Jedediah, I’m
in charge and I say we go that way!”
Heyes had yelled. “Now get back
on the horse.”
“Han you is lost, north is that
way, I know, I just do and I ain’t getting us loster.”
“You are getting on that horse
if I gotta flatten you.”
“Nope.”
“Then I’ll leave you.”
“Nope, I’ll flatten you
first. Ain’t gonna let you go off all
alone and get more lost,” Jed had said simply.
Heyes had moved to hit his
cousin, they wrestled all the time and was usually the only way to settle an
argument when they both got to stubborn to back down. But then behind them they heard a wolf howl and suddenly he felt
very young and afraid. Jed must have
noticed because he put on a hand on his shoulder.
“Han I know I ain’t as smart as
you, but even you said I can find things in the dark I’m so good with
directions. I just know. Now I don’t ever question how you do all the
things your good at, can’t you trust me to do the one thing I’m good at?”
The blue eyes were older than
they should have been and Heyes found himself taking comfort in them.
“You sure Jed?”
“I’m sure Han, if I’m wrong you
can have my soldiers.”
His cousin stared impressed,
there was nothing Jed loved playing with more than his soldiers, he even slept
with them.
“All right, we’ll do it your
way.”
“And let me right up front for a
bit, eat something, then you can take the last bit, partners do that, you told
me that,” he said offering him the bag of food.
Heyes and nodded and climbing up
behind his smaller cousin held on as he kicked the horse into the storm. It felt good to just be in back and relax a
little, not take the wind head on and after he swallowed a bit of food his
courage slowly began to return.
Twenty minutes later he signaled
his cousin to switch and handed him the rest of the food.
Because Jed had been right, that was what partners did
******************
“Heyes this isn’t working I’m
slowing you down,” Kid said weakly behind him.
The storm had gotten worse and
Heyes could barely see in front of him.
“Leave me in the shelter of
those trees over there, I’ll be fine and you can come back with another horse.”
“Shut up.”
“Heyes don’t make sense for both
of us die.”
“Nobody is going to die,
understand?” Heyes said through gritted teeth. “Now finish the story.”
“Heyes I can’t…”
“Quit whining and finish it!”
****************************
I’ll never forget the look on
that stationmaster’s face when we raced into that compound. They had been expecting a rider, he was
overdue, but they put it down to the storm.
Seeing us both up there just about frozen solid got the whole place up
in arms.
Remember how that fire
felt? I about crawled in it. And coffee, they gave us coffee just like we
were men, nearly made me gag! Almost as
bad as yours is, that where you got the recipe?
I remember us sitting there
shivering with blankets around us as the next rider hurried out the door to
continue on and thinking you had done it.
I was more amazed than the people at the station. I think I learned that day you could do
anything you said you could, certainly haven’t proved me wrong yet.
The rider off, all attention was
turned back to us. You standing up and
announcing you ought to be heading back now or your Pa would worry and everyone
laughing. Then they hauled out all
that food and everyone was talking at once and clapping us on the back like we
were heroes or something.
You remember that food? They let me have 4 pieces of ham, Ma never
let me have that much. I guess I fell
asleep eating, sure don’t’ remember anyone putting me to bed. Don’t remember much else until the next
morning when Pa woke me up.
Heyes I tell you when I saw him
over me I thought I was gonna be kilt proper, but all he did was hug me, looked
like he was gonna cry and then grandpa hugged me and called me a scamp.
Then I remember looking over and
seeing you facing your Pa and him hollering at you asking if you had plum lost
your mind.
Heyes smiled, “And you came over
and stood in front of me and said, ‘Sir the mail must get through.’ And all the men suddenly burst out laughing
and my Pa hugged me and Grandpa said we needed some celebrating. You remember that Kid? They took us to the saloon just like we were
real men and bought us steak dinners.
How did you eat all that? And
then Grandpa bought us cigars and said we had to save them till we was older, 7
and 9 should do! Remember how…Kid?”
He looked back and realized his
friend was unconscious.
“No Kid, don’t, we can make it
this time too, hang on…”
He stopped and blinked for a
moment afraid the gloom was playing tricks on his eyes and then as he moved
closer he realized there were lights ahead of him. Letting out a whoop of relief he grabbed his friend’s jacket to
hold him in place and urged the horse faster, they had made it again.
**************************
“So decided to come back to the
living did you?” Heyes said a day later
as Kid painfully opened his eyes to find his cousin sitting beside him in the
warm hotel room, a book in his hands.
“How long I been out?”
“About a day, Doc said you had a
concussion, but I told him it weren’t serious as you only got hit in the head.”
“Thanks, I appreciate the support,”
Kid said and tried to sit up only to fall back with a groan.
“Hey, hey slowly,” Heyes chided
getting up. “Tell me what you want,
I’ll get it.”
“Water?”
“Yea,” he said pouring a glass
from the pitcher by the bed. “You
hungry?” he added hopefully.
“Yea I guess am.”
“Told the doctor that would wake
you,” Heyes grinned helping him take a sip.
“Thanks for keeping me going out
there,” Kid said quietly. “If you
hadn’t of kept me talking…”
“Since when have I ever been
able to shut you up,” Heyes said going over to the table and unwrapping a plate
of food he had forgotten to eat.
“Me?” Kid said indignant and
then grinned. “Pretty clever of you
getting me to remember all that. It was
an adventure wasn’t it?”
“Except when we got back and our
Ma’s caught us smoking those cigars and the whole story came out,” Heyes
grinned.
“Yea we couldn’t sit down for a
week,” Kid grinned back and his cousin exhaled relieved to see it.
“Yea I guess I realized then you
weren’t so bad having along for the ride.” Heyes said coming back over with the
food, suddenly hungry himself. “There’s
only 4 pieces of ham I suppose that is not gonna be enough?”
“Very funny, you want some?”
“No,” he lied and sitting back
down watched him consume the plate without a second thought.
Because that’s what partners
did.