Outlaws of the West #57

A shady gambler gets his comeuppance in a Dakota saloon when a drifter called Cousin Jack catches him dealing off the bottom of the deck—but the real scheme unfolds when Jack's gunplay draws the sheriff away from guarding a gold shipment, leaving the door wide open for his outlaw gang to strike. Now Sheriff Al Caxton must pursue Jack and his crew to a Comanche stronghold atop Red Mesa, where Jack's own heritage gives him an unexpected advantage and complicates what should be a straightforward arrest.

A young man raised by Kiowas after a raid tears him from his family grows into a hardened outlaw—until the day he learns his true name and discovers the brother and parents he left behind are in mortal danger. Nick Nicholas must choose between the only life he's known and a second chance with the family he can barely remember in "Two Trails to Paradise," from *Outlaws of the West* #57. With raiders closing in on Paradise Valley at dawn, the paths of two brothers separated by fate finally converge.

Gunslinger Smokey Mimms shoots down a young man named Norm Kinlan in the badlands, but Kinlan survives the bullet to his head and tracks Mimms to a lawless outpost called Poison Spring, where the outlaw is bragging about the kill and auctioning off Kinlan's horse and gun. Now Kinlan has a chance to settle the score—and he's already sent word to the sheriff that's on his way.

Deputy Sheriff Jethro Clay corners outlaw Hank Taylor in the ghost town of Sparkle and bests him in a brutal fight, then makes an unconventional choice: leave the young troublemaker stranded with supplies and the chance to work the abandoned mines for gold, betting that hard work and solitude might straighten him out. When Clay returns a month later, he discovers whether his gamble paid off.