Complete Story Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5

Doom Canyon by Russell Montague

This complete novel, beginning in the January 25, 1925 issue, is a western set in the lawless Three Corners region where Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico meet. The land around Doom Canyon—a forbidding geological formation named for historical Apache massacres—is controlled by "Lobo" Smith, a ruthless outlaw leader with distinctive yellow eyes and black beard who rules through intimidation and force. Smith and his band of desperados operate from the canyon, preying on settlers and occasionally abducting women. The narrative opens with Jim Gardner, a rancher, bursting into a Laguna cantina in distress, announcing that Smith's men have kidnapped his wife. Gardner desperately appeals for volunteers to rescue her, fearing what Smith might do to her. The story establishes a frontier world of gun violence, superstition, and minimal law enforcement, where Smith's organized outlaw gang dominates the scattered, fragmented settler population through unified ruthlessness.