Kid Montana #16

Kid Montana wakes up in a crowbar jail to find his old friend Curly Jack Jones already imprisoned—along with several other men arrested by the corrupt self-appointed lawman Ben McClure, who forces his captives to build fences on his property as "sentence." When the Montana Kid challenges McClure's authority and disarms one of his guards, he inspires the other prisoners to rise up and head for town to expose the fraud behind McClure's badge. As Kid Montana and the freed men ride toward the county seat to demand answers, McClure and his gang prepare for a violent showdown they believe will keep their scheme hidden.

Sheriff Roy Dunstan walks straight into an ambush while tracking the dangerous stage coach robbers Chet Anderson and Pedro Mendarez, who waste no time making their murderous intentions clear. As the outlaws prepare to execute him, Dunstan's polished badge becomes an unlikely beacon—one that just might save his life when his deputy comes searching.

Kid Montana rolls into town looking for honest work, but a powerful rancher named Gil Bowling has other ideas—he controls the mines, freight outfits, and land, and he's not about to hire a drifter. When Bowling's insult sparks a confrontation, Kid Montana finds himself at odds with the man's hired guns, then joins forces with a local rancher who's been robbed by Bowling to take back what was stolen from the people of the territory.

Dan Kane, Montana's sharpest railroad investigator, spots trouble brewing when Max Loomis and his gang board a train carrying gold—and he's determined to stop the robbery before it starts. When dynamite rocks the express car and the thieves make off with the loot on horseback, Kane pursues them on foot into the remote valleys of Mustang, banking on cunning and local knowledge to corner the gang before they can disappear into the wilderness.

Kate Lewis owns the struggling Circle L ranch, but when she can't find hands willing to work for her, Kid Montana steps in—discovering that a ruthless operator named Arnie Worbler is systematically intimidating her workforce to force her into selling out. Now Kid Montana and a handful of hired guns must stand against Worbler's scheme to control the only shortcut to market and bleed the neighboring ranchers dry in the process.