Chapter 1

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He leaned back in the seats of the train car, tipping his hat forward over his eyes. Heyes was plain out tired. The trip from San Francisco was taking forever.

California. This wasn't the first time he had been there, nore was it to be his last, he reckoned.

He'd been there for a favor of Silky's. The old man had wired him, telling him he was needed by his side in San Francisco, for a opening of a new Casino. They grew like mushrooms from the ground these days, and even though Casinos had been around for quite some time now, there were still investors all over, who thought an establishment like that was a good thing to invest in.

He closed his eyes, trying to find a comfortable position for his somewhat sore and aching body.

Around him he could hear  the familiar sounds of other passangers talking, the trains bumping into every joint in the rails, the train whistle sounding every now and then.

As he rarely slept, he still managed to get a little bit of rest, well needed when he was going to meet with the Kid back in Rocky Creek.

His thoughts drifted back in time.

It was now  six months since he and Curry left Chyenne alone to get Tynan into Fort Pierre by herself. Not that they doubted her, no, she'd been fully capable to handle him alone. It wasn't that. The problem layed within him.

It was the hardest and the worst thing he had ever done. Leaving her! And it had been the longest six months in his entire life, and he'd been miserable all that time.

As for a detour about four months ago down to New Mexico, they were now back up around the border of Nebraska and South Dakota. Having traveled back and forth, taking odd jobs and constantly trying to avoid trouble, they finally  found a spot, more by accident than by purpose. Well, he had to admit to himself, that accident part wasn't quite right either. He knew fully well why they were there, the real reason, as that particular place laid just 3 miles from Spring Valley.

About eight weeks ago they had, not without hesitancy and caution, returned to Chyennes home town, Spring Valley, Heyes having high hopes of meeting her again, just to find her being out of town, and not about to return for two months.

It was Sherman, the merchantile owner, that  willingly told them everything.

How Chyenne returned that day six months ago, first clammed up, then yelling about a no-good sheriff named Tyler and an idiot Tynan. Her temper had grown even worse than before she  left and one day she just got fed up with Stan and his molestations, and had simply taken a firm grip around his balls. Even though his pants made the grip less accurate, she  squeezed the hardest she could and twisted it around.

Sherman recalled that he had never ever heard such a scream in his entire life, and just thinking about it made his face turn ashen.

Heyes could also remember the chill he'd felt when Sherman had told that story. Even Curry  looked a little pale.

After that incident, her father Sheriff Hal Murray, in agreement with his wife Gena,  made arrangements for Chyenne to make a visit to her aunt over in California. The need for a change of scenery for Chyenne was urgent. Strange enough, Sherman  told them, she never mentioned why she had come back alone and not in their company.

That was a thing however, both Curry and Heyes was grateful for.

Then they'd left, and as it was, just before he'd been summoned by Silky, they found a small enough town just 3 miles from Spring Valley, to settle in for a while. The town of Rocky Creek. They'd been there for three or four weeks now, and maybe the lack of a sheriff's the reason for them to have been able to stay put for so long. They got along on different jobs, helping the towns people with various things, like mending fences, painting the new church and the old school, sometimes helping old Fred in the saloon and so on. They'd been regarded strangers at first, as customary, but as the days went by they were soon welcomed, and they were also offered better accommodations.

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