Max Brand's Dead or Alive

His name was Lanky. He was a saddle tramp who turned up at the Porson ranch looking for a meal and stayed to stick his nose in the trouble between Dan Porson and the Acker brothers.

Dan had shot Josh Acker in a saloon brawl and Tom Acker—a gunslinger seeking revenge—challenged Dan to a showdown at a schoolhouse dance.

Dan accepted the challenge and brought Nels Grey with him. Nels paired off against Josh and killed him, then was thrown in jail. When a mob of Acker’s friends threatened to hang Nels, Lanky engineered a jailbreak.

In the grim days that followed Nels and Lanky were hunted mercilessly by Acker’s crew and the law as they fought to stay alive and smash an outlaw conspiracy.