It was deadly quiet in the streets when Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry rode into the town called Coffeeville. They couldn’t suspect that they would get involved in something. The outlaws stopped at the saloon.
“Kid, is it me or is it Sunday in town?”, Heyes asked while he dismounted and hitched his horse to the pole.
“I think you are right Heyes. It is deadly quiet here. Let’s hope that is a bit more lively in the saloon”, the Kid said.
He also dismounted and hitched his horse too. They went into the saloon but there was it quiet too. Except the outlaws, the bartender and an old drunkard therewasn’t a livingh soul at the saloon.
Heyes looked around and said then to the bartender,“Is it always so quiet here? I have heard that it was very cozy here.”
“It was before the Reverend came. He forbids every form of entertainent which is a destruction for Coffeeville. Officially I am closed but can I offer you something from the house? You knw, under the table”, Jack, the bartender said.
“Two whisky”, the Kid said.
He and his partner soon found out that the town was in very deep trouble.
Jack told, “Reverend Wilson had forbidden the gambling and poker. He has the opnion that he is the only one who can and must save Coffeeville from the badness. It is a thorn is his side that I am open on Sunday.”
“Doesn’t do the sheriff nothing?”, Heyes wanted to know.
“There is no sheriff. The Reverend has declared himself to the sheriff of Salvation”, Jack told.
Heyes felt that he had to have a serious talk with the Reverend.
He asked, “Where does Reverend Wilson live?”
“You find him at the church. A bit ahead. If I may give you an advice: don’t challenge him. He can be very dangerous”, the bartender answered.
Heyes nodded and said with laughing eyes, “Then he doesn’t know me yet. Come on Thaddeus.”
They left the saloon and went looking for Reverend Wilson.
At the church Reverend Wilson was busy cleaning up after the service. The churchdoor was half open when Heyes and Curry knocked.
“Come in. My door is wide open for everyone”, he said.
The outlaws looked at each other and went inside.
The Reverend cam towards them and said, “Another two lost sheeps who ask me to save them from all badness of Coffeeville.”
The outlaws decided to play the game along.
“From an acquaintance we have heard that you can help people getting rid of their poker. My mate here only thinks about how he can win each pokergame. Can you help him?”, the Kid asked.
“Surely I can help him. You seem an intelligent young man to me and I can surely save you. Just walk along to my office”, the Reverend said to Heyes.
Heyes walked along with the Reverend while his partner waited for him at the church.
“Sit down Mr……..?”, the Reverend asked.
“Smith, Joshua Smith. Like my mate already told you I think all the time how I can win a pokergame. It doesn’t matter how”, Heyes told.
“That is a very serious problem. It will cost you a lot of trouble to beat that nasty habit. You will be let into temptation to play but as soon as you have found the faith you are on the good road. Are yopu willing to go that road?”, the Reverend asked.
Heyes cast down his eyes and said, “I want to try it but I succeed. You know, the saloon has a power of attraction which I can’t stand. Especially the pokertable screams for me. It is sort of a friend for me. And you don’t let friends down. At leats that is how I think about it.”
“That last thing is also my opinion but that the pokertable is a friend of yours. I really cannot approve that. You must be saved quickly or you will never get to Heaven”, the Reverend said.
Fro a while it was quiet. Heyes knew that he was in it for the full and that he had to play the game along to the end.
“I can give you the advice to avoid the saloon. That place is the the house of the devil. I speak to you later Joshua”, the Reverend said before he and Heyes went to the church again.
“Thank you so far Reverend. Your faith in my salvation has given me enough selfconfidence for not playing poker”, the outlaw said smiling.
“No thanks. It is my reason to live”, was the reaction of the Reverend.
At the time when Heyes was at Reverend Wilson, Curry discovered that in the church were happening things that weren’t right at all. The Kid found a piece of paper at the pulpit. On it was written with big letters:
GIVE GENEROUS YOUR MONEY TO ME BECAUSE I AM YOUR GOD!
SIGNED:
REVEREND WILSON.
He picked it up and put it in his inside pocket. Maybe that they could use it as evidence against the
Reverend. Quickly the outlaw walked back to the door of the church.
Once outside the church Heyes said, “Kid, that geezer has really bats in his belly. He claims that I must be rescues soon or I will never get to Heaven.”
“That last thing I can understand but how are we gonna continue now?”, the Kid asked
“first we take a hotelroom and then we will see further”, was the light-hearted reaction of Heyes.
“I like that funny thing about you Heyes. You always look at the sunny side”, Curry said grinning.
“I know”, Heyes said.
The outlaws didn’t know yet how bad the Reverend Coffeeville had and held in his mean hands.
The worst of all was that in the whole town there was no complete deck of cards to be found. This was all the fault of the Reverend. Due to him it was forbidden to play poker at the saloon. Each stranger who carried a deck of cards with him was received with open arms. Especially when that deck of cards was pomplete.Of course the Reverend didn’t like this at all.
He was the kind of person where you couldn’t mock at. Each evening he walked into the saloon to control if there wasn’t any gambling and/or playing poker. Was this the case, then he intervened with a very hard hand. He got angry and got hold of the cards and the money. His will was law in Coffeeville.
He didn’t care less to commit murder. He couldn’t expect that therew would come an end to his career by the interfering of
Heyes and Curry.
Little by little the population of Coffeeville had enough of Reverend Wilson. Not only he preached about the sin of poker on Sunday, but he began to preach during the week on the streets. Hereby his income began to slink and the people just stayed at home on Sunday in stead of going to church like usual.
At their hotelroom Curry got the stolen paper out of his pocket and gave it to Heyes.
“What is this?”, he asked amazed.
“Found it in church when you were talking to that nut. Now it is very clear that it isn’t right here”, Curry said.
Heyes read the paper and his comment was, “That bloke has bats in the belly. That’s why his brain has turned into sawdust.”
His mate asked with a disapproved voice, “Heyes, you don’t talk about someone who wants to help you from your pokerproblem?”
Heyes looked at him with an amazing look and said, “That heavily flipped Reverend is not a Reverend but a con!”
Reverend Wilson had made his office in the former office of the sheriff. On a Sundayevening he looked thru the pile of wanted posters. Suddenly he saw two despriptions of Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry. The bonus on both of them made the dollarsigns in his eyes looking bigger than before.
He thought by himslef, ‘I never had such a good collection like this one. That is $ 20.0000 for me and nto a penny for the church!’
On a meeting in the saloon of Jack Evans said, “From now on I am in charge here in Coffeeville and not Reverend Wilson. Hereby I re-introduce the rule that there will be gambling and poker again in the saloon. If there is any trouble by that divine, let me know at once.”
His speech got a very long lasting applausse of all present.
Soon after this the men began to play poker and to gamble like they have never done before.
The noise stopped when the Reverend stood in the doorway.
He looked around angrily and said with a raised voice, “I forbid the gambling and poker in this town! Only I can save you from all badness which makes your brains ill!”
Jack said, “Your authoity days are over Reverend. Sheriff Evans has lifted the ban on gambling and poker.”
“Has he done that? Not with my permission!”, the divine replied angry sand he left the saloon.
He crossed the street and dashed into the office of the sheriff.
“How dare you to take over my power in this town? This was a good toen before you lifted the ban on gambling!”, Reverend Wilson raged against Evans.
“It is your own fault. They were just fed up with your preaching. I cannot lock you up yet but that day will come soon. I already look forward to that day. Just go away because you spoil my day and my mood with your presence!”, was the cool reaction of the sheriff.
The following morning Heyes and Curry were watching how the Reverend tried to convert a desperate cowboy.
The sheriff stood next to the outlaws and asked, “I would like to throw my rotten eggs and tomatoes at that Reverend if I wasn’t a sheriff. Wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, but then in a less measure”, Heyes said.
“Why in a less measure?”, Evans asked amazed.
“It is a pity of those rotten eggs and tomatoes when they come up to him. It is unfair to those eggs and tomatoes”, Heyes said with a pokerface.
The sheriff first looked at him stunning and began then to smile and the outlaws too.
Later that day Heyes walked passed the saloon for a new talk with the Reverend who wanted to help him to get rid of his pokerproblem. The outlaw had not much confidence in it.
When Heyes entered the church he saw the Reverend at the pulpit. At that moment the outlaw didn’t know yet that his life was at stake. Reverend Wilson saw the outlaw coming and thought, ‘There is the first tenthousand dollar.’ First he wanted to kill him but then the server of the the church had another plan in mind.
He walked up to Heyes and said, “Give me your revolver Mr Smith and then move!”
The outlaw gave it to him under coercion and got then pushed to a dark room and tied up.
“What is happening for goodness sake”, Heyes asked amazed.
“Thee are gonna crack the banksafe tonight with your partner Kid Curry. You are not Mr Joshua Smith, but Hannibal Heyes. After the bankrobbery I am gonna deliver the both of you at the sheriff of Clarksville. The bonus is for me. I know that you are worth both $ 20.000”, the Reverend said.
Heyes looked up and said, “We might look like those two outlaws but we aren’t them. I am Joshua Smith and my partner is Thaddeus Jones.”
Suddenly it came to his mind that they had met Reverend Wilson earlier. But then he didn’t call himself Reverend. Heyes had to come up with a plan for not letting their chance for amnesty go. He hurt his braincells until a plan appeared.
He said, “Reverend Wilson, if I see all that money I get the need to play poker again. You know that it is allowed since last night.”
“You are such a weaky guy! I better blow you for your head and rob that bank myself. You won’t get to Heaven anyway”, the Reverend said furious.
He pointed his rifle at the outlaw but this one had manged to get loose and made sure that he couldn’t be hit. Reverend Wilson shot at the left hand of Heyes and the bullit came just passed it. Hereafter the Reverend went away out of the dark room, leaving the door open. By the shotwound Heys was a bit weaken but he was at his positive mind.
Outside the church Curry and Evans heard the shot. They decided to see how the land lied. Carefully they went inside but everything was deadly quiet. The Reverend had left the church via the backdoor to stay out of the hands of the authority. Sudden ly the Kid found his partner who came towards him and Evans.
“We heard the shot outside. But the bird has flown”, was the reaction of Evans.
They walked outside where a group of people was standing watching.
After Doc had treated the hand of Heyes the outlaws decided to open the hunt for Reverend Wilson. He has left a clear track so that Heyes and Curry hardly had trouble in finding him.
He was waiting for the outlaws just outside of Coffeeville.
As soon as he saw the couple in sight he rode towards them.
“Hereby you are both under arrest”, the Reverend said to them.
“You can’t arrest us because you are wanted yourself”, Heyes reacted.
The Reverend began to laugh falsely and said, “that is a lie. I am a real Reverend like you and your mate are outlaws. Go on riding to Coffeeville!”
They turned their horses and rode back to town. Near the church they dismounted. Via the backdoor they went inside.
At the pulpit the divine said, “Now you keep quiet while I tie you up.”
He tied them up very tightly and went then to prepare his sermon. By this he didn’t notice that his prisoners got loose and ran out of the church.
Evans was writing a rapport when the outlaws came in.
The authorive looked up and asked, “Have you managed to get that creep into your hands?”
“He thinks he has us but you can put your handcuffs around his wrists because he is making his sermon at the church”, Curry said.
“You stay here. Now he is mine and then he can make his sermons in jail”, Evans said.
So said, so done.
Evans went to the church and saw his enemy standing at the pulpit. He walked up to him.
“I bless you, my son”, the reverend said to the sheriff.
“You are under arrest, my father”, Evans said and put the handchuffs on him.
In the cell Reverend Wilson asked, “Why do you arrest a divine like me and not two wanted cowboys like Mr Smith and Mr Jones?”
“They are honest people and not a tyrant and mean con like you”, the sheriff replied.
“Due to you I miss out a sum of $ 20.000. Those two are Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry.
Besides, Heyes asked me if I could help him getting rid of his pokerproblem”, the Reverend said.
Evans began to laugh unstoppeableo which made the Reverend angry.
“Hannibal Heyes would never ask a reverend to help him to get rid of his pokerproblem”, the sheriff said still laughing.
Before Heyes and Curry left , they first took a large cordial for the road. Jack saw them coming and poured in two double whisky for them. The outlaws looked around the place.
Heyes asked, “You are doing now great business, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, since the ban on poker has been lifted the business are going very well”, Jack said deliriously happy.
“Have you learned anything from your talks to the Reverend?”, the Kid asked.
“Never trust a divine at once”, was the answer of Heyes before they gave their horses the spurs.