Just a little bit of humor, again set in the old west. There is more to come from Mal And Kell.
The Silver Spurs
by Michael Sutch
"No one stole your spurs, Kell. It's just you can't find them in all this mess!"
Mallory was looking askance at his partner's kit spread out over Kell's bunk and scattered half around the bunkhouse. Kell grunted, digging further into his trunk and throwing an old pair of chaps on the floor.
"I tell you," Kell grumbled, "one of the boys stole my new spurs. They was right here on top of everything. Now they ain't."
Mallory looked over Kell's shoulder and into the dark depths of the trunk. "I don't see how you can tell where anything is. It's like a rat's nest in there."
Kell slammed the top of the trunk shut and stood glaring at Mallory. "Damn it, Mal! Just 'cause I'm not a prissy old woman like you that keeps everything in its own special place don't mean I don't know where things are. If all you are going to do is stand around and comment on the state of my kit, then git out of here! I don't need you."
"Hey," Mallory said, smoothing his mustache. "I don't mean anything, it's just...Well, never mind. If they aren't here, they arent' here. Who do you think took them?"
"I don't know," Kell said, stuffing wrinkled shirts, trousers, the aforementioned chaps back into the trunk in haphazard fashion, followed quickly by a sewing kit, shaving gear, and a leather tobacco pouch. "But I'm betting if we head into town and stop into Kott's Merchandise, we'll find them fixed to the wall behind his counter, all polished up and gleaming like the silver he paid for them. And he'll tell us just who it was sold them to him too."
Mallory nodded. "Sounds like an idea. I'll go saddle up."
Kell grabbed his old stetson off the pillow of his bunk and slammed it down on the uncombed mop of his thick red hair. As he passed the bunk, he accidentally kicked it. There came a clinking sound from beneath one of the wadded up blankets. Both men stopped. Mallory, by the door, turned around, looking at the bunk. Kell pulled the blankets aside and there, resting on the yellow sheets, were two silver spurs.
Mallory grinned.
"Oh, shut up!" Kell said.
"I didn't say nothing," Mallory answered, but his grin got bigger.
(c) 2014 by Michael Sutch
