Continued from Part Eleven

A hand slapped Snyder across the chops. “Kid, wake up.”

Snyder opened his eyes. In the back of a red conversion van, Blackjack McGraw sat over him despite being declared dead a decade ago at least.

“Blackjack, what are you doing here? More to the point, what am I doing here?”

“No need to thank me. It was a tough job, but when Nick Verducci sought me out to break you out of jail, I told him to keep the money.”

“That explains it. Doesn’t Verducci own a few public harems?”

“I’ve never needed to use one.” Blackjack stared into a pocket mirror and adjusted his hair. “Come to think of it, he probably does.”

“Then we know what his angle is, and it’s not ‘I like you, kid.’ If I leave town, more men will be going to his harem when I’m convicted in my absence and unable to appeal. Blackjack, I need your help.”

“What do you need?”

“I need you to break me back into jail.”

McGraw stared. “You sure they didn’t beat you too hard the last time?”

“Do you want to start visiting public harems regularly?”

“I’ll have you back in a jiffy.”

Continued Next Thursday

Tales of the Dim Knight is available in Paperback form, in the Kindle Store as well as on Smashwords in a variety of formats. At both sites, you can get extensive free excerpts on your computer, or sent directly to your Kindle device from the Kindle store.