Painting the Town Red

Ever since the silver market crashed, the mining town of Dead Broke has been awfully quiet. The local marshal—legendary gunman Duncan “Mick” MacMicking—doesn’t have much to do besides outshoot the occasional greenhorn looking to challenge him. But all this peace and quiet is about to end. After getting trapped in a cave-in, Mayor Nugget unearths a mineral to rival his famous “Hope Diamond of Silver.” He calls it the “Liberty Bell of Zinc,” a massive boulder of pure zinc carbonate. But when word of his discovery gets out, the quiet little boomtown of Dead Broke goes boom—again—with a vengeance. . . . 

First, a scheming banker shows up to cash in on Nugget’s prize. Then, an outlaw gang arrives to rob the bank and steal the Liberty Bell. After a blood-soaked shootout, Marshal Duncan decides he’d better get that big rock out of town before more people die. Fortunately, the mayor has received an invitation to display his zinc boulder at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in Chicago. There’s just one problem: getting it there without getting killed. Thanks to all the publicity, every greedy sidewinder in the West knows which train they’re taking. And once the shooting starts, this train will be dead on arrival. . . .