by Saran Essex
Butch sighed. He could only surmise that Lonzo must have given up trying to keep secret the fact that he was also known as the Sundance Kid.
He got busy storing away the cans of food and other items, and cleaning out the small wood-burning stove. He placed a couple of logs and some kindling inside the fire chamber of the stove, but he felt too tired to light a fire and cook a meal, and instead ate some beef jerky and some dried fruit.
Afterwards, he drew aside the curtain that separated the two rooms of the cabin and went into the small room that was used as a bedroom.
There were two beds in the room, each bed had a mattress and blankets. Butch lay down on one of the beds, and before he fell asleep he thought briefly about the odd smile that Emmett had given him, and wondered what it meant.
The next morning when Butch woke up, the sun’s rays were already glinting through the cabin’s bedroom window. He squinted in the sunlight and moved off the bed. He felt a strange feeling of loneliness and told himself that prison had done that to him, made him feel vulnerable in some way, and that it was best to keep busy.
His first job, he decided, would be to find a bucket and fetch some water from a nearby creek. He found a tin bucket outside the cabin near to the corral, and was about to walk the few yards past the corral to the creek just beyond when he noticed that there were two horses in the corral instead of just his own.
The other horse was a black stallion. Butch stared at it for a second in puzzlement, then shrugged, and assumed that maybe an outlaw from one of the other cabins had put it in the corral for some reason. Gripping hold of the handle on the bucket, Butch started to walk towards the creek.
It was then that he heard a whistling sound. He stopped walking and listened – and yes, it was definitely a whistling sound, and it seemed to be coming from a dense group of trees on the left side of the cabin.
Butch glanced towards the left of the cabin. He could vaguely see a dark shape amongst the trees – and then, as he listened to the whistling, he realized who the black horse in the corral belonged to, and his face suddenly lit up with the brightest of smiles and he inwardly started to cheer.
The tunes being whistled were ‘Oh Susanna’ and ‘Sweet Betsy from Pike’, with a few odd notes in places. Butch dropped the bucket and cried out ecstatically, ‘Lonzo!’
The dark shape began to move towards him along the side of the cabin, and the shape materialized into Lonzo, alias the Sundance Kid. He was dressed all in black as usual, but there was a sandy moustache on his upper lip. He had a half-smile on his face as he walked up to Butch and said impassively, ‘I see you still remember our signal!’
Butch beamed at him – he was so glad to see him that he quickly charged forwards to give him a huge hug. Sundance didn’t pull away from the hug, but he didn’t hug Butch back, just gave his arm a quick squeeze.
Butch stepped away, still beaming with happiness.
Sundance said, ‘Most people ain’t usually that pleased to see me!’
Butch stood smiling at him for a moment, and he felt again the kindred spirit between them. He knew that Sundance must have purposely sought him out for a reason – he was probably aware that he was now known as the outlaw Butch Cassidy, and he hoped that Sundance was now ready for a partnership.
Sundance said with a slight smile, ‘I’ve been hearing a lot of things about you. . . .’
Butch grinned, ‘So I take it you know I’m known as Butch Cassidy now!’
Sundance said with his smile still faintly visible, ‘Well . . . from all that I’ve heard about Butch Cassidy, the bank and train robbery, it wasn’t hard for me to work out that Butch Cassidy was really Leroy Parker, the young man who didn’t want an ordinary life. . . .’
Butch laughed, ‘I’ve been hearing a lot of things about you, too! I’ve heard you’ve been riding with outlaw gangs from Hole in the Wall . . .’ he looked at Sundance a bit studiously, ‘I’m guessing that you gave up trying to keep your identity as the Sundance Kid a secret, and that most of the folk here in Browns Hole know you as Sundance now.’
Sundance’s eyes grew serious, and he said, ‘I wasn’t able to stop it from becoming widespread knowledge that I was also known as the Sundance Kid. While I was at Hole in the Wall, I met up with a man who had known me in prison, and this man soon spread it around the hideout about my other identity – and from Hole in the Wall, it leaked out to other places.’
Butch stared at him a little sadly, and said, ‘I know it ain’t what you wanted, but something like that was bound to happen sooner or later – and your reputation with a gun is just gonn’a keep on growing, you know that, don’t you?’
Sundance shrugged, and said ‘I know, and it’s just something I’m gonn’a have to live with, now that I’ve chosen the outlaw life. . . .’
They both went quiet for a moment as they thought about the consequences of being outlaws.
Butch then looked over at the cabin; he was starting to feel hungry and he wanted some breakfast.
‘Hey’, he said cheerily to Sundance, ‘I don’t know if you’re aiming to stay here for a while, but I’m hungry!’ He picked up the bucket, and looked over at the cabin again, ‘And I’m hoping that you’re still a good cook, so why don’t you go and cook us some breakfast while I fetch some water from the creek?’
Sundance stared down at the ground for a second, and then he lifted his head to look at Butch, and said in his usual blunt way: ‘It kind’a depends on you if I stay here for a while. I’m here because I want to know if you’re still interested in the partnership you asked me about over two years ago.’
Butch felt himself cheer inwardly again. He definitely was still interested in a partnership with Sundance, and he knew that Sundance was serious – but he decided to be a bit cautious, and he said, ‘Are you sure a partnership is what you want? You walked out on our last partnership before it had even begun, and without a word to me!’
‘That ain’t exactly how it was!’ Sundance snapped. He looked annoyed, ‘I only said that maybe I’d think about joining into a partnership with you and Emmett, and we never shook hands on it or anything, and I did leave you a message!’
‘Oh, yes!’ Butch remembered with a laugh, ‘The book!’
Sundance said sharply, ‘Are you still interested in a partnership with me, or am I wasting my time?’
Butch smiled at him a little fondly, and said, ‘You are not wasting your time, I surely am still interested in a partnership with you, we are kindred spirits you and I. . . .’
Sundance’s annoyance started to disappear as he smiled at Butch’s reference to them being kindred spirits.
Butch then asked him, ‘What made you seek me out now to ask about a partnership? I mean, it’s been over two years, like you said?’
Sundance gave a slight shrug and said curtly, ‘Let’s just say I’ve realized that if I’m going to be an outlaw, then I do need a partner to work with, and it has to be someone I can trust – and I already know that I can trust you.’
Butch grinned, and said, ‘The partnership will be just between me and you now, as Emmett got married to Annie and has settled down.’
Sundance said, ‘I know, I’ve seen Emmett at the store, I’ve been working for Duke Garrison while I was waiting for you to get out of prison.’
Oh! Butch thought to himself, so that was why Emmett had given him that odd smile!
Sundance looked in the direction of the cabin, and said briskly, ‘Well, now that we’ve sorted out our partnership, I’d better go and cook us some breakfast,’ and he started to walk towards the cabin.
Butch caught his arm and held out his hand, and said, ‘I think this time we should shake hands on our partnership!’
Sundance smiled as he took Butch’s offered hand, and said, ‘I hope you know what you’re taking on. I ain’t an easy person to get along with. . . .’
Butch said, ‘I do know what I am taking on: I’m taking on a partner I trust with my life – and anyway, I ain’t no angel, I
got my bad points too!’
Sundance nodded, ‘Yeah, you talk too much!’
Butch laughed, and said with happy enthusiasm, ‘Well, partner, are you ready for a life less ordinary for however long it may last, and wherever it may take us?’
‘You bet!’ was Sundance’s answer.
CHAPTER 12
The night had seemed endless, and as the first light of dawn filtered through the window of the bedroom, Butch still felt half crazy with worry as he sat beside the bed where his wounded partner lay in the cabin home of their friend, Jerome Arnott. He had tried to take his mind off his worry by narrating half out loud to himself for most of the night, the story of how he had first met Sundance, and how their partnership had begun.
The hours passed by with no sign of Sundance waking up. Fear and dread still tore at Butch’s heart, and he kept telling his partner that he had to pull through. Several times he found himself weeping in despair.
It was around mid-morning when Jerome Arnott entered the room; he had just got back from Buffalo. He had ridden into the town to try and find out if Luther Greeley, the man who had shot Sundance, was still there.
‘You can stop worrying about Greeley coming after you,’ Arnott said to Butch, ‘I’ve just spoken to some of the townspeople in Buffalo, and they told me that Luther Greeley has been shot dead by the sheriff.’
Butch knew that he should feel some sense of relief from Arnott’s words about Greeley, but at that precise moment, he did not.
Arnott then took a look at Sundance. He noticed that there had been no fresh bleeding through the bandages, and Sundance’s breathing seemed a lot easier. He smiled at the worried and tired-looking Butch: ‘And you can stop worrying so much about Sundance, he’s breathing easier and he should wake up soon.’
Arnott left the room, and around an hour later, as Butch stared down at his partner through sore, red-rimmed eyes, the wounded Sundance suddenly stirred and opened his eyes. He gasped a few times in pain, and looked up weakly at Butch before giving him a faint impression of a smile of recognition. Butch squeezed his partner’s arm in relief. He told Sundance they were in Jerome Arnott’s cabin, and that he had taken him there after Luther Greeley had shot him.
‘Do you remember Greeley shooting you?’ Butch asked his partner. Sundance muttered a weak reply.
‘Well, we don’t have to worry about Greeley any more,’ Butch told him, ‘The sheriff in Buffalo shot him dead.’
Sundance muttered something that sounded like good.
‘You gave me quite a scare, partner,’ Butch said, ‘I thought you were never going to wake up!’
Sundance murmured weakly, ‘I had to wake up, if only to stop you from telling any more stories. . . .’
‘You heard me?’ Butch felt surprised and a little embarrassed.
‘I heard some of it,’ Sundance murmured as he looked at Butch, ‘and like I always said – you talk too much!’
