Outlaw Town

In 1866, the United States Government made a new treaty with the five civilized Indian tribes, and this treaty forced them to give up half their lands for aiding the Confederacy in the recent war. The lands the tribes were forced to surrender were called the unassigned lands and were allotted to the roving bands - the ones who liked to move around and not settle in one place. But somewhere in the shuffle a mistake was made and a chunk of territory was left to no jurisdiction whatsoever. It didn't belong to Texas, nor to Arkansas, nor to the Indian Territory, and acquired the title of no man's land.The result was predictable: outlaws were quick to take over this stretch of territory, and under the leadership of a man known only as "Chink," they had founded a stronghold in defiance of the law.Marshal Jim Dawson had to be filled in on this background when he answered a request to call on Judge Prater, who had the almost impossible job of administering justice to the seventy-four thousand miles of Indian Territory - an area which contained the worst collection of bandits and cutthroats that had ever assembled anywhere in the West. Dawson supposed that the Judge had a warrant for one of those badmen and wanted him brought in for trial.Dawson was mistaken. Judge Prater wanted the marshal to get into Hideout, an almost impregnably situated town which was the outlaw headquarters in no man's land, and bring back Chink. There was a personal feud between Chink and the Judge; Chink was determined to make lawlessness in the territory so bad that Judge Prater would be forced out of office in disgrace.But how was Jim Dawson to get into Hideout? Chink had a genius for organization; his guard system was so intricate and efficient that no one could slip into the town.They had had a break, the Judge told Jim. An outlaw named Gibbs had just been killed, and this fact was being covered up. Gibbs bore a strong resemblance to Jim Dawson. In the Fort Worth jail was a man known as the Red River Kid, a minor outlaw, but a man who had been at Hideout and was accepted there. Dawson would study the dossier on the late Mr. Gibbs, then pose as him; Gibbs had a talent for breaking jail and had boasted that no jail could hold him long.Dawson, as Gibbs, would be taken to the Fort Worth jail, and lodged in the cell with the Kid. A jailbreak would be arranged; then, the two thrown together as fugitives, it would be natural for the Kid to take Dawson to Hideout. After that, Jim Dawson would be on his own.Jim Dawson took the job, and found that his masquerade was just good enough to get him into Hideout. He also found that Chink mocked Judge Prater's court by holding a court of his own in Hideout - a court where rebels against Chink's authority, or lawmen who happened to get in, were tried, sentenced, and hanged with swift and ruthless efficiency. He found this out when two denizens of Hideout brought proof that he was not Gibbs, and he was in an outlaw jail, waiting to be hanged the next morning. Here is a thrilling novel of the law and the lawless.


Genre: Western