Kill Crazy Read Free Page A

other.”
    â€œAnd I’d hand you the axe handle,” Ben added.
    â€œIf you see him, tell him I’m lookin’ for him,” Elmer said.
    â€œWill do,” Dale promised.
    Elmer left the two men, mumbling to himself as he started back toward the ranch office. The ranch office was a relatively new addition to the Sky Meadow compound, a small building that sat between the “big house,” as the cowboys called Duff MacCallister’s residence, and the bunkhouse. Duff was in the office tallying the latest numbers, compiled from the count the cowboys gave him almost daily.
    â€œElmer, you’re looking a bit peeved,” Duff said when Elmer came into the office and sat down at his own desk, with a disgusted sigh. “Would you be for tellin’ me what has you in such a state?”
    â€œIt’s Simon Reid, again,” Elmer replied. “That son of a bitch is as worthless as tits on a bull. I thought I was a better judge of men than that. I shoulda known from the time I hired him that he wasn’t worth a cup of warm piss.”
    Duff laughed. “Elmer, ’tis no one I know with a more colorful grasp of the English language than you. Sure ’n’ sometimes I wonder if ’tis English at all that you speak.”
    â€œDamn it all to hell, Duff, I’m tryin’ not to cuss, I really am. But Reid absolutely makes my ass knit barbed wire.”
    Duff laughed again. “Och, mon, now your language has gone from colorful to incomprehensible. How does one’s arse knit barbed wire? Never mind, I know the answer to my own question. One’s arse would knit barbed wire very painfully.”
    At that moment there was a knock on the door.
    â€œMaybe that’s Reid,” Elmer said, getting up to answer the door.
    It was Woodward, Martin, and Walker.
    â€œWe need to talk,” Woodward said.
    â€œDuff is cipherin’ an’ such. Let’s talk outside, so’s not to disturb him,” Elmer responded, stepping out of the office, then shutting the door behind him.
    â€œWe’ve got problems, Elmer,” Woodward said. “Big problems.”
    â€œWhat kind of problems?”
    â€œLosing-beeves kind of problems,” Woodward said. “We found three of ’em down half eaten.”
    â€œHalf eaten?” Elmer replied, confused by the comment.
    â€œBy wolves,” Walker added.
    â€œYou’re sure it’s wolves?”
    â€œYeah, hell, they was still workin’ on one of the beeves when we seen them,” Woodward said. “Five of the critters they was.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you shoot ’em?”
    â€œWe tried to shoot ’em, but we can’t get close enough to the bastards to hit ’em,” Martin said.
    â€œThey’re too damn smart. They either see us or hear us or somethin’. But we can’t get no closer ’n about two or three hunnert yards from ’em before they start runnin’. And you can’t hit no wolf from three hunnert yards away. Hell, you can barely see the sons of bitches from that far,” Walker said.
    â€œThe bastards started eatin’ on that last poor critter even before it died. We had to put it out of its misery,” Woodward said.
    â€œGood, that was the right thing to do,” Elmer said. He sighed. “All right, thanks for tellin’ me about it. I’ll let Duff know.”
    â€œI agree, Duff needs to know,” Woodward said. “But for the life of me, I don’t know what he will be able to do about it.”
    â€œThis is Duff MacCallister we’re talking about, remember?”
    Woodward laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “Now that I think about it, I have no doubt but that he will take care of it.”
    â€œListen, you boys haven’t seen Simon Reid, have you?”
    â€œReid? No, not since this mornin’,” Woodward said. “Didn’t you toll him out for workin’ in the barn