A ghost-town at midnight ... a hearse driven by a dead man ... and a coffin full of gold coins ...For Benedict and Brazos, it was the start of another bullet-fast adventure.Benedict felt they were entitled to keep the loot. Brazos wanted to do the decent thing and return it to its rightful owner.But what about Doc Sullivan, the ruthless killer who'd originally stolen and then lost it? He certainly wasn't about to lose out on a quarter-million dollars. Comes to that, neither was U S Marshal Cleve Elliott, who was determined to reclaim it and send it back where it rightly belonged.And then there was Milt Hinkle, and he was the one threat Benedict and Brazos didn't allow for ... because Milt Hinkle just happened to be Brazos's wayward cousin!

Trouble was brewing between the Shotgun Ranch and its rivals, the Golden Hoof – and though they wanted no part of a range war, Benedict and Brazos eventually had to choose sides.There was just one problem.As the bodies piled up, and the gunsmoke grew ever thicker, Benedict started to wonder if they'd thrown in with the right side. Brazos had no such doubts ... but by then, he'd fallen head-over-heels for the Golden Hoof owner's beautiful daughter Tracy. And Tracy could do no wrong in his eyes ...It was then that the unthinkable happened, and Benedict and Brazos found themselves on opposing sides. In the final showdown, they'd have to go against each other, toe to toe, gun to gun ...

After witnessing the cold-blooded killing of a man named Boyd Larsen, Duke Benedict and Hank Brazos found themselves up to their gunbelts in mystery, murder and mayhem. Someone was rustling cattle from Nate Kendrick's Rancho Antigua, and while that in itself wasn't Benedict and Brazos' business, rumor had it that the man doing all the rustling was Bo Rangle, the cut-throat outlaw they've been tracking ever since he massacred their men in the closing days of the Civil War. Signing on as range detective and wrangler respectively, Benedict and Brazos set out to run the rustlers to ground and exact their revenge on Rangle. But before they can find the man, they need to find the cattle ... and somehow or other, those cattle have vanished right off the face of the earth!

He was a dead man walking.He staggered into the hotel lobby with a knife sticking out of one ear, and when he hit the floor the blade finally penetrated his brain and finished him off once and for all.Unfortunately, there was no shortage of suspects. A lot of men had reason to hate Harvey Yardigan. But then a witness came forward to say that the murder had been committed by none other than Duke Benedict.Benedict and his partner, Hank Brazos, were in the town of Mirage on secret business. Midwest Territory was a hotbed of crime, murder and rustling. Things were so bad that folks had started calling it "The Killing Ground" instead. The fancy gambler and his big cowboy friend were sent in to clean the territory up ... but it seemed that someone else was already onto them – and would stop at nothing to make sure they failed in their mission!

As usual, Duke Benedict and Hank Brazos were low on funds ... until they ran into a drunken miner by the name of Arnie Woodcock. Arnie bore such an uncanny resemblance to a wanted outlaw called Turk Jory that it gave Benedict an idea. Suppose they were to turn Arnie in and claim the reward on Jory's head? They could then bust Arnie out of jail, quit the territory and split the money three ways.What could possibly go wrong?In short – everything.Nobody figured on the real Turk Jory showing up to take a look at the man who was to hang in his place.Nobody figured that he would use the hanging as a diversion while he hit the local bank.And nobody figured that Benedict and Brazos could still come out of the whole sorry mess as heroes!

There was trouble in Fortitude Valley. Someone had set up a lumber camp smack in the middle of cattle country. And to make matters worse, the lumbermen drafted in to work the axes and saws, and float the timber down to the sawmill, were paroled convicts! If they made a go of the chance they'd been given, they could win their freedom. But the Fortitude Valley Cattlemen's Association had other ideas about that.Hank Brazos and Duke Benedict were hired to keep the peace between the two opposing factions, but that was easier said than done. Unwittingly, they landed themselves right in the middle of an all-out war in which neither side intended to go down without a fight ... and their weapons ranged from red-hot lead to sweaty, unstable dynamite!

Bullets droned overhead. The enemy knew where he was but could not see him. But soon Savage could see them, one of them at least. It was a Mexican standing in a shielded doorway with a rifle to his shoulder and blasting at the gate house.Savage took his time aiming. His bullet caught the Mexican in the temple, spattering tissue all over the red brick wall.Savage lay on his side, feeding fresh bullets into the magazine. Soon he heard hoofbeats. The ambushers were making a run for it. But he still hadn't identified who they were until, running away to his left to gain a sweeping view of the battle scene, he saw the band of horsemen thundering away.The biggest of the party glanced back once over his shoulder ... and Savage recognized the striking features of Vinny St. Claire!

They passed a solitary tree that had witnessed a hundred years of prairie history. Brendan stared back at it. Once they had hanged a man there, a bounty hunter who tried to poison their coffee after posing as a miner down on his luck. The Donovans hated lawmen, solid citizens, rich people and anybody who didn't speak with an Irish accent, but most of all they hated bounty hunters ... especially the tough ones.If nothing else, Clint Savage had shown he was tough enough.

Mack Halligan and Kid Chaney were rivals in more ways than one. They both loved the same woman, and she loved them, too ... though she could never decide which one to marry.But the two men also ran rival outlaw gangs. The difference was that Halligan's was hopeless, the men in it harmless and amateur, while Kid Chaney's was slick, efficient and always successful.When Chaney stole Duke Benedict's new horse, the gambling man made it his mission to track Chaney down and take the animal back. His big partner, Hank Brazos, agreed to side him on his quest. But Brazos had an ulterior motive.If they could put Kid Chaney behind bars, it would leave the way open for Mack Halligan to marry the girl of his dreams and return to the straight and narrow.But that was a big if. The Tiger twins, both notorious assassins, were after them on a separate matter... and a lot of men would die before they all reached trail's end!

Savage was beginning to regard this as a dull night. But he changed his mind when he stabled his horse, finished his cigar standing under the big tree by the barn, then made his way to his room to find it occupied.The lightning draw he executed as he caught the stir of movement in the gloom was as fast as ever. The hammer was back, his finger firm upon the trigger, and he was ready to blow the intruder clear through the wall if needs be.Then he realized two things simultaneously.The person in his bed was Charity.And she was naked ...

They were an odd pair, the one-time Union captain and the former Confederate sergeant. They'd fought each other during the Battle of Pea Ridge ... and then ended up fighting shoulder to shoulder when a common enemy showed his face.Bo Rangle, leader of the guerilla force known as Rangle's Raiders, took advantage of the slaughter to steal what the two opposing forces had been fighting for - two hundred thousand dollars' worth of Confederate gold.Hank Brazos and Duke Benedict never forgot that day, or each other. And when, by chance, their trails crossed again after the War, they decided to team up, find Rangle and reclaim that gold for themselves.And while they were at it, they swore to get revenge for all of their comrades who'd died that day back in 1862 ...

Trouble was brewing in the town of Harmony, between the gun-toughs who manned the Two-Bar ranch, the hardcases who hung around the Rawhide Saloon and the beleaguered miners out at Whipple Creek. Into this explosive situation rode Hank Brazos and Duke Benedict. With a thin bankroll, they were looking to earn some fast money to continue their hunt for a Civil War guerilla who'd killed their comrades and stolen a fortune in Confederate gold ... a fortune they themselves planned to get their hands on. So Brazos pinned on the sheriff's badge in return for a hundred dollars a month, and soon found himself taking his responsibilities more seriously than he'd thought possible! Across a poker table, meanwhile, Benedict ran into an old acquaintance named Doc Christian. They were rivals, these two gambler-gunmen. And frankly, Benedict had no idea where Doc fitting into the various warring factions. When the chips were down, however, Benedict and Brazos found themselves in...

Duke Benedict shook his head. "He's bluffing. He won't shoot."Slattery's thumb curled back the hammer of the .38. The girl's body went limp in Slattery's grip, her eyes huge pools of terror. The sound of Roley Dukes' nervous cough came loud as a gunshot in the sucked-in silence. Then Slattery started working the girl towards the batwings, and Benedict took two swift steps to cut him off.The color drained from Slattery's ugly face. "Goddamn you, I'll shoot!" he almost shrieked."Shoot and be damned," said Benedict.

It looked like the end of the trail for Benedict and Brazos, when Brazos got mighty mysterious all of a sudden and just took off on his own. Benedict, the urbane gambler, reckoned he should be glad to be free of the lumbering Texas cowboy at last. Instead he missed having him around.So he followed him, to find out just what his little secret was.That was when the whole affair grew even more mysterious. Why did Brazos go all the back home to Wildhorse County, start throwing his weight around and bad-mouthing damn' Yankees at every opportunity?It was all part of an elaborate cross and double-cross that would eventually see both men fighting for their lives against a bunch of fanatics who called themselves the Second Army of the Confederate States!

"Well, what do you think?" he asked at last."Of what?""Of me. You've given me a good enough lookin' over to be sure you know me next time.""I think you've got broad shoulders and slim hips, stranger. But we both know that don't make a man, don't we?"Savage grinned, "Dead right, Scarlett, dead right."She paused, "What are you called?""Savage.""It fits.""So I've been told.""Plan to stay around, or just passing through, Savage?""Stayin'. That's if you've got accommodation?""I think I can accommodate you," she said, leaving him wondering if the double meaning had been accidental.After a moment he went back to his shaving. He hadn't been too impressed with Catclaw at first glance, but it was starting to look more interesting. If he could just get some low-life train bandit to show his ugly face inside the next couple of days, he wouldn't have a complaint in the world . . .