A young orphan boy named Dinky does odd jobs and sleeps in the livery stable in a town named Bonnet.  One day he accepts a job from Cactus Pete, an old, sway-bellied desert rat who needs a boy to crawl through a hole.  Dinky accepts.  First he has to learn to stay on Pierre, Cactus Pete’s burro.  Then, way out in the desert, he finds out that the hole is in the ground and not a cave. Even that is not so bad until Dinky, down in the hole, tugs on the rope, has it slither down on top of him, and hears gunshots.

“Song of Pierre” appeared as a Western Trail Blazer e-book, October 2011. This story also appeared in Blue Horse Mesa: Western Stories (RR Productions, 2012).

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