Dead Man's Badge

Seventeenth in the Tales of the Old Wild West series by prolific western author Doyle Trent.
In the tradition of the John Wayne classic westerns and legendary television series Gunsmoke and Bonanza.

The Wild West. If the elements, rattlers, coyotes, and Indian's didn't kill you...the person sitting next to you in the saloon just might...just for the hell of it. This series is presented as self-contained standalone story novels that do not have to be read in any particular order. It gives readers an entertaining glimpse into what individuals from all walks of life encountered as they traversed the untamed western landscape seeking fortune, glory, a new start, or keeping one step ahead of the law behind them.

STARPACKER'S JUSTICE
The Concha Lake, Colorado cemetery was growing fast, and no one was dying of natural causes. When the sheriff got himself fatally backshot while looking into the matter of some rustled cattle, his deputy, Billy Walker, agreed to wear the badge-but only until the next election. Billy was a slow-tempered man, but he could quick-draw his Navy Colt faster than most when the occasion arose-and in Concha Lake, the occasion was arising more times than Billy cared to count.

Notwithstanding the sudden rash of cattle theft, stagecoach stickups and double-aught-buck bushwhacking that was breaking out, Billy knew there was more to the local crime wave than met the eye. Someone in town was in cahoots with the Mountain National Bank over in Rosebud, and was stirring up a lot of dust to cover his or her tracks. Billy had vowed to uphold law and order but wasn't all that keen on dying for it too. And as the hot lead sizzled past his ear he knew the time had come to get to the bottom of the mess if he wanted to just plain survive his term in office!