Sleeping Beauty, Indeed
"Coyote Kate of Camden"

''Well, I say we must do something! It has become an infestation. A plague, I vow.'' The Mayor of Camden, Colorado finished his oration with a stabbing finger motion that made his starched shirtfront flap up into his red face. He smoothed it down and hooked his thumbs into his suspenders, surveying the assembled citizens at the town meeting and pursing his lips. ''What say you?'' he added.

Virginia Harrow wanted to say that with his round face and bald head he looked like nothing so much as a colicky baby, but she hid that thought and her smile, one gloved hand rising to cover her mouth, and turn her laugh into a cough. Even when the occasion was dire, as this one was, Mayor Brady amused her to no end.

''We've tried traps and poison, too,'' Chuck Weaver said, standing up, hat in his hands. Chuck ran the barbershop, which sat only two doors down from Ginny's newspaper office. ''But they just keep coming.''

''They'' were coyotes. Wiley creatures, those dog-like coyotes, with their yellow eyes and their sly-smile muzzles. A whole passel of them had descended on Camden, swooping down on the outskirts of town and killing sheep, cattle, and the occasional guard dog. Nothing the town had tried had even made a dent in the coyote population.

''Yeah.'' This from Nate Garrison, who owned the general store. ''One of them even got into my stores out at the barn and ate half a month's provisions. What are we to do?''

Ginny had an idea, one that she'd hesitated to mention ere now, knowing it would be unpopular at best, jeered at the worst. Still, Camden seemed in desperate straits. Why, just last night a large yellow mongrel had tried to steal the widow Freemont's daughter, right off their back porch.

She rose, smoothing her skirts and petticoats before clearing her throat. ''Gentleman. If I may?''

Mayor Brady's face screwed up like he'd sucked on a pickle. ''Yes, Miss Harrow?''

Damn the man for insisting on emphasizing the Miss. He always did, reminding her of her spinster status. Indeed, of her bluestocking status.

''How about Coyote Kate?''

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