Summer, 1880, St. Louis, Missouri. Popcorn crunched as Cleve walked inside the theater. He could hear the piano keys singing merriment and joy into the audience. He saw Legeme in a seat a few rows down and went to sit by him.
“Howdy Cleve” said Legeme when he noticed him. “Wonderful day for a play ain’t it?”. Cleve nodded his head while taking his seat.

“What’s the title today?” he asked.

Legeme replied “The Donkey with Two Tails. I’ve heard astute things about it. Apparently they donkey really got two tails.”

“Well I’ll be a chicken in a coop” Cleve replies. The lights dimmed and the curtains were brought over the stage, the play was about to start. Suddenly, a merry melody rang throughout the theater and the curtains rose. Standing upon the stage was indeed a donkey, and Legeme was right, the donkey appeared to have not one, but two tails. The play lasted an hour or so and it depicted the tale of a awful salesman who comes across a wondrous donkey and then exploits it for money. He ends up losing the donkey to bandits and mourns the loss of his new friend. He learns a valuable lesson and amazingly the donkey returns to him. After the show Cleve and Legeme investigated the donkey, to see that the second tail was a fake.

“I’ll be darned” said Legeme.

Summer, 1882, Nevada. The evening above occurred two years ago. A mere 2 months later the duo of Cleve and Legeme were off on a journey. Cleve’s dream was to own a piece of land out west and Legeme was along for the ride. The two were just packing up camp for the morning when Cleve heard a sound.

“What in tarnation was that?” he asked. The sound was similar to a gunshot or a cannon of somesorts.

“I ain’t sure, but I damn sure don’t want to be around to find out.” Legeme replied.

They took off on their steeds away from the noise. Cleve’s mind was racing. They were nearing the area he considered to be prime land for building a ranch. Would the sound of a gunshot be a possible threat to what would be his new home? Would he be able to keep this place safe? The task of building a stead from scratch is already hard enough, he doesn’t need saltlickers running around waving guns making it worse.

“Look up ahead!” yelled Legeme. A few hundred feet farther was a wagon. The covering on top was ripped to shreds and the front wheel on the right side looked damaged. They approached the wagon slowly, pistols drawn. When they reached the back wheels, a thumping could be heard from inside. Cleve carefully peered inside and saw a man. He was roughly in his thirties, with a mexican look to him. Dressed in a suit with a bushy mustache, the man was rolling around on the floor of the wagon.

“You alright fella?” Legeme asked. The mexican man looked up, surprised, and passed out cold. Cleve and Legeme decided they needed to help. Cleve built a fire while Legeme settled the man on some blankets. After about an hour the man woke up. He looked around for a second, found his bearings, and opened his mouth to speak.

“The name’s Julio” he stated.

“Nice to meet you Julio it seems like you’ve had a difficult situation here” Cleve replied.

“Sure have.” Julio says. “A nasty group of bandits were tracking my sister and I all the way from Texas and they finally caught up with us before you found me.”

“What happened?” asks Legeme.

“We were just packing up camp to start on the road and heard a gunshot.” answers Julio “We got going hastily but suddenly we were surrounded. I tried to fight back but they knocked me unconscious. I need to find Yolanda. I fear she’s in quite a pickle.”

“Do you have any idea where they’re heading?” asks Cleve. “They can’t be too far ahead of us, there’s still time to catch up.”

“They were heading west towards the canyon up ahead” says Julio.

“Then we’ve no time to waste. Let’s get moving.” says Cleve. So they took off west, towards the canyon in the sunset. Cleve rode first with Legeme trailing him and Julio riding with Legeme. Thoughts continued to race through Cleve’s head. Who was this mysterious man they’d rescued? Why is he going through the trouble of helping them? What’s going to happen when they catch up to the bandits?

Soon, the canyon could be seen in the distance. The sun was beginning to set into the canyon and the sky looked beautiful. Streaks of purple and orange were strung bright in the sky. This was the sight that Cleve looked forward to. He loved every aspect of the frontier. Civilization was nowhere near, the land was untouched, and everything was just miraculous to gaze at.

As the reached the mouth of the canyon, they got off their steeds and started on foot down the decline.

“Look, I can see a fire.” noted Legeme. “That must be the bandits. We need a plan. Julio? How many of them were there?”

“I remember four guys, all with revolvers.” replied Julio.

“We can take on a 3 versus 4 situation, we just need to get the jump on them.” says Legeme. “ They were finally approaching the camp. There was a fire with saddlebags and horses around it and no bandits. They must’ve gone somewhere. Tied up on against the side of the canyon was a woman. This must’ve been Yolanda. Cleve couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was stunning. She had dark hair with a slender body.

“Is that her?” asked Cleve.

“Yessir” replied Julio.

“Okay then let’s move in. Keep your guns ready incase the bandits come back.” said Cleve. They rushed into camp, alert for the bandits. Cleve began untying Yolanda while Legeme and Julio stood watch on either side of him. She was unconscious and couldn’t walk so Legeme volunteered to carry her back.

“We got her. Let’s get out of here before those thugs come back from wherever they are.” noted Legeme. They quickly  began trekking out of the canyon. They could see they’re horses when suddenly a voice appeared.

“Hold it right there partner.” It was the bandits. Four grown men stood between the rescuers and their horses, guns drawn and ready to shoot. Cleve drew his pistol, ready to shoot.

“I wouldn’t try that if I were you.” says Julio. Cleve and Legeme turned around to see Julio holding a gun in their direction.

“You set us up didn’t you.” say Cleve.

“Yessir I sure did.” replied Julio. “We’ve been riding with these bandits for awhile now but our wagon broke. We saw you two riding the other day and decided to come up with a plan to get some extra horses since we couldn’t ride in the wagon anymore. I told them to knock Yolanda and I unconscious and stage it as a kidnapping. You two were too damn noble to say no when I needed help. That’ll be your downfall.”

With Legeme holding an unconscious Yolanda, and five guns total pointed at them, Cleve was the only one that could fight back. With no other choice, he jumped into action. With a quick shot he brought down Julio. Legeme jumped to the ground as to protect himself and Yolanda while Cleve went to work. With four shots and one swipe of the arm, all the bandits fell. It all happened so fast.

“Good work pal.” said Legeme. “You showed them who’s boss around here.” With the bandits and Julio dead on the ground, and the moon beginning to rise, they decided to stay in the bandits camp since it was already set up. Legeme laid Yolanda on some blankets due to the fact that she was still unconscious. When she finally woke, she was terrified. Cleve explained to her what happened and she calmed down a little. She spoke of how bad of a man Julio was. She spoke of how he himself knocked her unconscious when the wagon broke. She spoke of how being with the bandits had her terrified constantly.

“It’s over now, you’re safe with us.” Cleve told her.

Yolanda and Legem had now dozed off, and Cleve was laying down restless. He couldn’t sleep. The image of Yolanda wouldn’t leave his head. She was all he could think about. He wondered what she’d do now. Maybe he could ask her to come with him. Cleve scolded himself for thinking such a thing. She’d never.

“BOOM!” Cleve bolted upright to see a bloody Julio standing over Legeme. He had shot him. He reached for his gun but before he could get to it there was another shot. He swung his arm back towards Julio but the mexican was on the ground. Yolanda stood, arm raised and pistol in hand. She had shot Julio. She had shot her own brother.

In the morning he’d bury his best friend, but for now he just mourned. They’d known each other for years. They were the dynamic duo. Whenever one got into trouble, the other was right by his side helping him get out of it. Yolanda must’ve sensed something was wrong because she came to Cleve. She comforted him and they laid together all night.

In the morning Cleve buried Legeme. He marked his grave with a big flat stone he found by the wall of the canyon. Etching to the stone with his knife, Cleve marked, “here lies a noble and trustworthy man, may he rest in peace”.

Spring, 1884, Nevada. Two years after the death of Legeme, everything was going well. Cleve asked Yolanda to join him in finding a new home and she accepted his invitation. He build a humble little cabin a few miles west of the cabin. The cabin was surrounded by a brilliant forest with plenty of game to hunt. The Ruby River was only another mile to the west for easy access to water. Cleve and Yolanda had spurred a relationship and together they lived here in tranquility.