MULES WERE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD ON THE FRONTIER — SO MULESKINNERS HAD TO BE FAST TO THE DRAW, FAST TO AIM AND FAST ON THE TRIGGER – THAT WAS CLAY BALLARD!"Thrills aplenty." —The Boston Post
For the wagon train, it was a long haul for from Missouri to the frontier mining town of Rangely. A long haul . . . and a rough one. But Clay Ballard knew it was worth the trouble.
Few people in those early days realized that the train's real treasure wasn't in the wagons he led – it was in the mules that pulled them. Ballard's mules were worth a small fortune.
When the wagon train was ambushed by a pack of greedy renegades, the muleskinner knew what to do. Ballard showed the settlers how to fight their way through.
But when they finally made their way safely to Rangely, Ballard found he had walked into a sinister double-cross that left him without a mule, penny or friend.
Ballard considered his options. Then he met Lea Smith and realized he had only two options. Rangely was going to either be his home or his grave.
Now those responsible for the theft were about to find they had made a deadly mistake. Clay Ballard was about to show it didn't pay to mess with a muleskinner – not he's got a blazing six-gun in his hand. . . .