London Calling

By Avoca

The 5th of December found our intrepid partners breakfasting in a handsome hotel restaurant.

Not much talk passed between the two men as they ate their breakfasts.

Heyes finished first and sat back.

“Stop it!” Curry glowered at his partner

Heyes looked sheepish as he responded. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Kid.”

“Yes, you do. I’m fine; Hell ! I’m better than fine. Everything is going great and you can’t handle that.”

Heyes took a sip from his coffee cup, buying some time, before he responded.

“I could have lost you.”

Curry sounded exasperated. “It was a through and through, we’ve both had them a few times.”

Heyes sighed. “It was your left shoulder, an inch or two lower and it would have been through your heart.” An image of blood seeping through his fingers as he tore the shirt from his friend’s chest came unbidden and unwanted to his mind.

“Look at me.” Curry’s eyes locked onto his friend and he smiled. “I’m fine, even the stiffness is improving, in fact I am riding out of town this morning to get a little practice in. Everything is pretty good. We have our payment from Big Mac intact and over the last few nights you have been doing really well at the poker table. We probably have enough money to get to some quiet little Mexican town and lay low for a few months.”

“We tried the Mexican town before with disastrous results.” Heyes chuckled and shook his head.

Curry joined in the laughter “You’ll think of something, you’re the genius in the partnership, remember?”

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heyes sat at a round table in the busiest saloon in El Paso playing poker with better than average players. His demeanour was calm, just another poker player, playing well but losing the occasional hand. His face gave no clues to the cards he held. Curry, who was standing at the time- worn wooden bar, studied the room and glanced again at his partner. This was the third night that Heyes had played here and all was going well. The other players were older than Heyes but they all appeared good natured and amicable. Curry knew that his partner was enjoying himself and he decided that he would finish his beer and head back to their shared hotel room. The wound in his shoulder was bothering him a mite more than he was admitting to Heyes and the ride out of town earlier hadn’t helped.

Heyes saw his partner leave the saloon and had to stop himself from shaking his head. Dang it! But Kid could be stubborn. That shoulder wound must be sore as hell but he would never admit to it.

The poker game finished up around 1a.m. Heyes pocketed his large winnings while bidding good night to his fellow players. A tall grey haired gentleman in his late forties with a distinguished handlebar mustache, approached him.

“You’re a supremely talented poker player, Joshua, and I rather think that you are wise beyond your years for allowing the rest of us to win a few hands.” He smiled to show there was no malice intended in his words.

James, I think you overestimate my abilities.” Heyes also smiled.

“Joshua, I have enjoyed the last few evenings of poker and my losses are not substantial enough to worry me or my banker. I am leaving tomorrow and I would like to have breakfast with you before I do so. You’re a very interesting man and you have nothing to fear from an old traveller, like myself.”

Heyes agreed to the meeting and returned to his hotel room.

Curry stirred and yawned as he woke, he knew the morning was well advanced from the sunlight entering through the gap in the worn curtains. Just then Heyes entered the room, looking alert and smiling.

“Sleep well?” He asked as he sat on the side of Curry’s bed.

Curry moved a pillow against the head rail of the bed and propped himself against it before he answered. “Yep. Guess I missed breakfast so I’ll have to have lunch, have you eaten’ yet?”

“Kid, I had a very interesting breakfast with James.” He carried on before Curry could interrupt . “He’s the older grey haired man with the huge moustache who played poker for the last three nights. It turns out he’s English and he is travelling through the U.S., in fact he has just left for Mexico in a private stage couch. He was telling me about the private clubs in London and he reckoned we could do very well there..”

“What? “ Curry interrupted.

Noticing the look of confusion on his friend’s face, Heyes stood up. “Get dressed and over lunch I’ll tell you all about it. I’ll meet you in the dining room after I send Lom a telegraph to see if he has any update for us.”

Heyes hurried from the room and Curry was left to ponder the look of enthusiasm he had seen on his friend’s face. Heyes had come up with a scheme, that was for sure! And although some of his schemes had been great, it was up to Curry to question the practicality of each one. That was the way their partnership had always worked, Heyes was a dreamer and Curry was the practical one.

Curry had ordered his lunch before Heyes appeared at the table, requesting a cup of coffee from a middle-aged waitress.

Both men waited until the coffee was poured before they began to talk.

Heyes was animated as he spoke. “I sent the telegraph to Lom so I guess we’ll have an answer later or tomorrow.” He looked around the room and dropped his voice. “Kid, I had another great night at poker and I know we need to move on but I want to tell you about my talk with James this morning.”

The arrival of Kid’s lunch interrupted the conversation and Heyes waited until his partner had begun to eat before he continued.

“James is spending the winter in Mexico and in the spring he is returning home to England. I have his card.” Heyes produced a small white card, handed it to Curry and carried on.

“He says there are a number of private men’s clubs in London where wealthy patrons play cards, not always poker but he is pretty sure that we could pick up the other games with a little practice and once we make enough we could set up our own club. In fact he has offered

to go into partnership with us on his return to England. I don’t think Lom is going to have any news of our amnesty so what have we got to lose?”

Curry had stopped eating as he listened to his partner speaking.

“Whoa! Heyes, back up. You think this fella James.” He looked at the card he had been handed. “ James William Mountgomery, Earl of Glouchester, is going to go into partnership with us because you beat him playing poker?”

Curry resumed eating.

“Kid, there’s more to it than that. He’s a pretty good poker player and he knew that I had let the players win a few hands so that there was less likelihood of sore losers. In fact, when we had breakfast this morning, he was chuckling at that thought. I think he’s genuine and I think his business proposal is sound. He suggested that we travel to London, he has given me a few letters of introduction, and we visit several clubs. I have his list here. We see how that goes and how we like living there. He’ll return in the spring and if we are interested and have some money put by he will invest in a new club. We’ll run it, he’ll be a silent partner and use his connections to help build up the business. What do you think?”

Curry finished eating, took a swig of coffee, wiped his mouth on his napkin, before he spoke.

“Have you lost your goddamn mind? This is a hustle, Heyes, pure and simple.” His eyes blazed.

“Kid, I know a hustle when I see one and this isn’t one. James isn’t asking us for money, in fact he isn’t asking us for anything. This could be the opportunity we have been looking for.” Heyes stopped speaking as the worldly worn waitress approached their table.

Heyes paid their bill, leaving a generous tip and waving away her grateful thanks as he turned towards his partner. “We need to discuss this in our room.”

The two men returned to their room in silence.

Curry was aware how well his partner could use his very persuasive words to get his own way and he used the short walk to their room to go over the information Heyes had provided and the more he thought about it the more he was convinced that they were being set up.

Heyes tried everything to persuade Curry that a trip to London might be the best way forward as they awaited their long overdue amnesty but the younger man seemed determined to remain in the U.S. The conversation went back and forth between them until finally Curry snapped.

“Enough! You want us to spend money buying first class tickets for a steam ship leaving New York, which as you know is about two thousand miles from El Paso, and God knows how we’ll manage to get there. I hate to remind you, Heyes but it’s December and travelling east

at this time of year is madness. I can’t believe you’ve been taken in by some guy with a moustache and an accent.”

“Kid, even if James turns out to be a hustler it doesn’t matter. We need to make plans and build a future and London could be a fresh start. I’ll write to Lom, and update him and if the amnesty comes through he can let us know. We have to do this, we need to go someplace where we can’t be recognized and start over. Hell! We have the money to travel in comfort and we can make it to New York. Think of it, Kid, we could be in a new country by the time the new year comes. New Year, new start, what do you say?”

“No.” The single word ricocheted around the room.

Curry pulled his saddlebag from under the bed and began pushing clothes into it.

“I’ll leave in the morning and I’ll keep in touch with Lom and you can send letters to him so that we both know what is happening. I have enough money to head south.” He tied his saddlebag and extended his hand. “Good luck, Heyes and I hope it all works out for you.”

Heyes was shocked.

“I don’t want to do this without you but if you want to stay here then I’ll split our winnings, like we always do.”

“No, you won that money and I have enough of my own to last a few months.”

________________________________________________________________________

The morning sun streamed into the hotel room as the curtains had not been closed the night before. Neither of the partners had slept well and were glad of the early light to use as an excuse to start the day.

Heyes broke the silence. “Kid, I’ve never begged you for anything before but I am now, please come with me. I can’t stay and watch you take another bullet, bad things happen when we split up. Please just give it a year and if you hate London we’ll come back, I promise.”

Curry studied his friend and saw the worry lines etched into his forehead and the fear in his brown eyes. The prospect of heading out on his own didn’t hold great appeal and it was his job to watch his partner’s back.

“I know I’ll probably regret this but all right, we’ll give it a year, Heyes.”

Their adventure was just beginning.

________________________________________________________________________

Author's note: Thanks to my Beta M.F.