Free Rio Loco by Robert J. Conley

yet.”
    I got up and went back outside. I stopped for a minute on the boardwalk and looked up and down the street. It still looked clear. I walked on down to the hardware store and asked the ole bastard what run it if he had some dynamite. He did have, and so I told him I needed me about six sticks. He brought it out, and I tucked them into my inside coat pockets. “Send the goddamn bill to pettifoggin’ Peester,” I said, and I walked on out again.
    I felt some better with that goddamn load of explosives all around my chest. Course, I also thunk that someone might get off a good shot at me and blow my ass all to hell. When I thunk that there thought, my steps got just a little bit longer and faster as I hurried my way back to the safety of my office. I sure as hell did not want to get scattered all over town thattaway. Whenever I gotback I yelled out my name, and I went back inside and behint my desk. I pulled out a drawer and started unloading my pockets a’ that stuff, stashing it all in my desk drawer.
    â€œWhat’s that, Barjack?” Butcher ast me.
    â€œWhat the hell does it look like, moron?” I said. “Never mind about it nohow.”
    â€œWell, it looks like dynamite.”
    â€œDo tell,” I said.
    â€œWhat’re you planning to do with it?”
    â€œDidn’t I tell you to never mind?”
    â€œWell, yeah, you did.”
    â€œThen never mind it.”
    â€œAll right. I don’t mind it, but is it dynamite?”
    â€œButcher,” I said, kinda like snapping at him.
    He turned around and hung his head and sulked off in one a’ the corners a’ the room. I almost had a mind to explain things to him, but not quite. Bonnie come a-waddling out a’ the cell from behint the hanging blankets just then, and she waddled right at me. I braced myself real good, and when she run into me, I stood my ground. I helt my breath whenever she give me her big bear hug too. “Good morning, Barjack,” she said. “Ain’t you glad I spent the night here with you?”
    Whenever she turnt me a-loose, I said, “Yes, sweet tits, I sure as hell am.”
    â€œCan I pour you a tumbler a’ your good whiskey?”
    â€œNo, I been a-waiting for that there coffee.”
    â€œIt’s damn near used up, Barjack,” said Sly.
    â€œI’ll take the damn dregs,” I said, and that’s justezackly what I got too. The goddamn dregs. But I went right ahead and drunk them down, and then I went to spitting out bits a’ coffee grounds. Bonnie put on a fresh pot for me. “Thanks, sweet tush,” I said. Then it come to me that I’d have a few minutes’ waiting time again, so I tole Bonnie to go on ahead and pour me a whiskey. She did too, and she give it to me. I dranked that down, and then by and by I final got my coffee. I was setting behint my desk a-sipping on it, and Sly come over and perched his ass on the desktop.
    â€œBarjack,” he said, “I don’t know about you, but I would sure like to know what Chugwater is up to. I’d like to have a warning well before he comes back to town.”
    â€œWell, hell, Widdamaker,” I said, “I would too, but I don’t rightly know how we’re going to get that warning. I’ve got either one a’ Happy or Butcher on the roof a-watching. I don’t know what more I can do.”
    â€œYou can let me ride out to Chugwater’s ranch and do a little spying,” he said. “I think I could maybe find out something.”
    â€œMaybe get yourself kilt,” I said.
    â€œI’ve watched out for myself for a good many years now, and no one has killed me yet.”
    I slurped on my coffee and set the cup down. I looked up at him right into his steely eyes. “You really think you could might find something out?” I ast him.
    â€œI think it would be worth a try,” he said.
    â€œWhen you want to go?”
    â€œRight