Kid Montana #39

Kid Montana rides hard for the Pawnee temple ruins after a dying Chief White Cloud reveals that the outlaw Snake Morgan seeks a sacred war idol—one so powerful it could unite the tribe in bloodshed and trigger a conflict between two peoples. With only a slim lead and the desert itself working against him, the gunfighter must race across scorching wasteland and through deadly obstacles to find and destroy the idol before Morgan can claim it.

A quiet stranger rolls into the rough-and-tumble town of Dead Gulch, but his refined manners and taste for lemonade mark him as an easy target for the local bullies—until he demonstrates unexpected skill with his fists. When three troublemakers challenge him to a fight, the tenderfoot reveals he's far more capable than his polite demeanor suggests, earning the respect of the townsfolk and a new reputation in town.

Kid Montana answers an urgent plea from a young woman named Janet Crain, who's been searching for her father—a scientist who vanished into the swamps of Panama ten years ago. Following clues from local Seminoles, Kid Montana and Janet track down Professor Crain on a remote island, where they learn a harrowing truth: his forced-growth experiments on apes succeeded too well, driving the creatures violently mad and trapping him in isolation. Now Kid Montana must help father and daughter survive the jungle threat that's kept them separated for a decade.