The Good, the Bad, and the Dead by Bruce Campbell & Shane Lacy Hensley

Author:Bruce Campbell & Shane Lacy Hensley [Campbell, Bruce & Hensley, Shane Lacy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781889546674
Amazon: 1889546674
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Published: 1999-12-02T07:00:00+00:00

THE SNIPE HUNT

By Clay and Susan Griffith '

"E God, that is one stupid looking hat!"

"It's a bowler," Wallace Budge clarified. He made a self-conscious adjustment atop his head, but smiled pleasantly nonetheless. Fine boned hands brushed at some unseen dust on his shoulder before dropping back to the table to cradle his brandy.

"Well, it's still stupid." Zeke Craven threw back the last of his tepid beer and then motioned to the bartender that he needed a refill. His tall, lanky frame overflowed the small, wooden chair. Tipping his own weather-worn Stetson back off his forehead, he studied Budge across the shabby poker table. The shorter man could not have been more out of place within the Dead Eye Saloon than a zombie still lying cold and rotting in the ground.

Budge was clothed in a brown satin hunting jacket; his pants stuffed into a pair of boots of soft supple leather that were finer than any plainsman wore. The tips of his long, reddish-brown mustache curled up slightly. He had showed up less than a week ago with more baggage than a woman and proceeded to spin yarns that grew as elaborate as some old bitty's gossip. The Easterner's cocky, smug attitude irritated Zeke.

"If you're gonna spend time out here, you need to git yourself a real one." Zeke reached over and slapped another cowboy sitting beside him intently shuffling a deck of cards. "Right, Earl?"

"Damn straight," Earl Whiffles muttered, his concentration centered on making his gnarled hands obey his commands as he tried for the hundredth time to make the ace of spades pop up from the deck. Instead it usually fell to the table and occasionally the floor.

Budge tried a smile and leaned a little closer to his new compatriots. "This hat is my lucky hat. There isn't a beast that walks this earth that can stand up to this hat. And my .450 double express, of course. Elephant, lion, bear. You name it, gentlemen. I've killed it."

Zeke chuckled along with the other fellows around the table. He caught a glimpse of the bartender on the other side of the saloon and tried again to wave him down. Zeke's humor faded as the oblivious bartender tended someone else.

"They probably died of laughter," Zeke growled aside.

Howling burst out around the table. Lucas Hawkins pounded the table making glasses shudder and gasped out, "Good one, Zeke."

Budge kept the amiable expression upon his face. These men were just funning with him after all. Friends did that with one another and although he hadn't been in town but a while, he considered these men his friends. Besides, how could they know he was only telling them the truth. His skill with a weapon was renowned Back East as well as overseas. But here in this new frontier he still had to build his reputation as a Big Game Hunter.

He regarded the men surrounding him. "I assure you the beasts were not laughing when my .450 soft nose shell hit them between the eyes."

Zeke rolled his eyes in disbelief.

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