Red Mask #54

Major John Hanley, a cavalry officer plagued by a reputation for catastrophic bad luck in combat, takes command at Fort Danger—only to find his men convinced that serving under his command is a death sentence. When the mysterious gunslinger Redmask arrives, he begins investigating the true source of the Major's string of disasters, uncovering a betrayal that has haunted Hanley's career. As Apache forces close in for what should be a final, fatal ambush, Redmask's discovery sets in motion a daring counter-trap that could finally turn the Major's fortunes around.

Red Mask finds himself saddled with Billy Gage, the well-meaning but hopelessly clumsy young cousin of Sheriff Ben, when Billy takes over the lawman's badge during Ben's vacation. When outlaws strike the assay office, Red Mask devises a clever trap to catch them—but Billy's bumbling threatens to unravel the whole plan at every turn. As the masked rider tries to track the gang to their hideout, Billy's chaos keeps creating new obstacles that Red Mask must somehow work around to bring the outlaws to justice.

When the renegade Marlow manipulates Chief Black Thunder into a vendetta against the Presto Kid, the lawman-magician finds himself captured and forced to perform an impossible feat—making a man float in mid-air while blindfolded, or face execution. With his wits and mastery of hypnotism as his only weapons, Presto must turn the tables on his captors and prove that the greatest magic of all lies in outwitting those who underestimate him.

When a poor man is mysteriously robbed of valuables he claims to own, Red Mask suspects there's more to the story—especially when the accused thief turns out to have been in jail for a week. Investigating the Espinoza hacienda, Red Mask uncovers a dangerous plot to steal something far more precious than anyone realized, leading him into a confrontation with a treacherous caretaker and a gang of armed bandits. What begins as a puzzle about a worthless man's impossible robbery becomes a race to protect a fortune hidden in plain sight for generations.