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for his penchance to utter a jolting inhale that shrilled with a loud ‘Heep’ sound. The awkward cadence left his audience always shaken and never fully in groove with the flow of his words.
    “We have a great show for —heep—you tonight! Heep. We have the meanest—heep—dogs and the—heep—craziest and most blood thirsty of—heep—souls. Place your bets—heep—and make—heep—sure to stay well away from the—heep—ring circle. We wouldn’t—heep—want to have anyone fall in now, would we?”
    The men around him chuckled a bit at his words. The speaker did too, but began ‘heep’-ing so much that he quickly lost his composure.
    “Our game tonight will be as it has always been.” The speaker paused for a moment, as if surprised that he got through a sentence without his awful tick. “Cages will—heep—be chosen at random by throw of—heep—dice. One dog cage and one human cage will be opened for—heep—each round. As always, cages contain single or multiple humans or dogs—heep). The—heep—survivors will be allowed to live to fight another day. The loser will be fare for this evening’s festivities for those who—heep-heep—have money to pay for it. The price is steep, so bet well. We don’t want anyone to go home with empty bellies now—heep—do we?”
    The speaker looked around to his cronies who laughed and slapped each other on the back. “Let’s—heep—have some fun tonight!” He raised both hands, and the crowd erupted into cheers. Goods were exchanged as the first round of betting began.
    Chet and Floyd heard weeping mixed with some screams from the other cages.
    “Not a bad racket ,” Floyd said as he watched the black-clad men climb the ladder outside the ring. They returned to the safety of their places of honor in the front, the best seats in the house. “They get a piece of the action as well as getting nightly meals.”
    “They are forward thinking. I will give them that,” Chet said. “Do we have a plan?”
    “How about don’t die.”
    “I can dig it,” Chet said.
    The speaker held up a pair of dice for everyone to see and made the first roll. Chet and Floyd tensed as the dice clattered in a wooden bowl beyond their sight. It didn’t matter much to them anyway; they had no idea which cage they were in.
    “He really should make this plainer to everyone. What if he’s cheating on what doors open?”
    “That wouldn’t be very sporting of him ,” Floyd said sarcastically.
    The speaker raised one arm again and yelled over the crowd noise. “Cages three and—Heep—twelve!”
    The cage holding the huge dog sprang open with such force as the monstrous beast shoved his way through. Chet and Floyd couldn’t see the human cage that opened, but the dog must have shot straight into it before the person inhabiting it could get out.
    His screams of sheer terror compounded quickly with horrible pain. A loud snapping sound ended the shriek and, just as quickly as it had begun, the first round was over.
    Ladders were lowered as several of the black-clad men, who now held spears, climbed into the ring. They circled the cage of the snarling dog and held him at bay while one of their members stabbed the corpse inside and pulled him out.
    They didn’t move the dog back to his cage, but instead locked the door to the cell it was in now. It raged against the bars until one of the men chopped off one of the corpses arms and shoved it through the bars to the beast inside.
    Chet and Floyd could hear the dog loudly rending the appendage and wolfing it down. The corpse of the dead man was handed up to be prepared for the feast, and the men climbed back up the ladders.
    “They have a pretty good system here too ,” Chet said.
    “Are you thinking of joining them or something? You are very complimentary,” Floyd said.
    “Only if they have a good dental plan. My teeth have really gone to hell. You cannot stress good oral hygiene enough Floyd! I hardly smile anymore due out