Break In, Break Out

Silas Barngo runs a hardware store in downtown Harper. Unfortunately, his store has been broken into several times over the last few years. Silas is also a snake lover. He hunts 'em down and collects and sells the venom to some medical group down in Louisiana. I reckon it was natural for him to come up with the idea of turning a snake loose in the store after closing each night. He put a big sign on the front window that said: Drop In Tonight and Visit My Ten Foot Rattlesnake. The problem was finding and recapturing the snake every morning, so Silas decided he would only put the snake out one night a week and give any miscreant a chance to play Russian roulette. A couple of nights ago there was a break in. Either the crook could not read or decided to take a chance. It was the wrong night. While the entry into the shop was neat and well-ordered, the breakout was hurried and messy. There was glass and blood all over the sidewalk in front of the store. They caught the evil doer when he admitted himself into the Harper Hospital ER with a hundred tiny wounds all over his body. He was not sure if they were all caused by the glass, there was a chance that some of them may have been from snakebite. It turns out the reptile that Silas had left out that night was a large king snake that could not have hurt the villain. Seems the fellow didn't know anymore about snakes than he knew about robbing people.

Coming soon: More Tales of Harper (an ebook on Amazon)