Noel M. Loomis was a truly fine storyteller whose fiction, as Bill Pronzini observes, has "a lean, reportorial quality that provides intense realism without crossing the line into sensationalism". The nine stories collected here demonstrate his versatility, his broad range of interests, his emphasis on historical accuracy, and his objective realism, while differing widely in setting, period, character, and tone. Included are a Spur Award-winning story...

"When Tom Bell rode into Doblado to take over the only newspaper in Vaca County, he saw the old editor shot down before his eyes. The cut-throat gang who wanted to run the county pinned the murder on Bell. Bell blasted the gang in his newspaper, and printed enough evidence against them to sign his own death warrant. But Tom Bell was un buscadero--a two-gun man."--Page 4 of cover.