The true story of one of the most enigmatic characters of the west, who walked through and made history as a hero and a villain. 

SYNOPSIS:

Adapted from my short story of the same name published by Berkley Books in 2003 in the anthology Black Hats.

The story opens in Montana with Slade slumped over a bar in Virginia City. The interior of the saloon was destroyed by Slade’s pistol some hours before. A mob of miners and ranchers gather at the entrance, hoping to rush him at the appropriate moment and make him pay for his months-long routine of destruction and intimidation.

From there, the story looks back to 1860, where we find Slade being hired by the Overland Stage Line with instructions from Ben Ficklin to supervise the Sweetwater Line. The main purpose of hiring Slade is to bring to an end the lawlessness on that particular stretch of Overland’s line of stage stations and Pony Express route.

Jules Beni, the owner of a “ranch” at his namesake of Julesburg, Colorado, is the biggest obstacle to stability. Beni has been put in charge of the stage station at Julesburg as a convenience, but since Beni has long operated his “ranch,” which was somewhat of a trading post and way station before the stage line came through, he is accustomed to running an outlaw trade out of the area. The stage, which he oversees, is but another opportunity for him to engage in theft and general outlawry. Ficklin has identified him as the source of stage coach robberies and horse theft. A fox in the henhouse, so to speak.

Slade knows that Jules has been operating a band of outlaws out of Julesburg back to when Slade was a wagon master on the Oregon Trail and that getting rid of Beni will be no easy task. Ficklin hopes that Slade’s already impressive reputation for working in and amongst outlaws and dealing with them swiftly and mercilessly will be enough to force Beni out.

The confrontation between Slade and Beni is immediate, but neither is quite sure of their success and work in and around each other for a time, Slade being Beni’s boss, until Beni happens to catch Slade unarmed. Beni guns him down with a shotgun and empties a pistol into him. This would be the end of the story, but Slade miraculously survives and Beni is forced to flee the area by Ficklin’s threat to drive him out with the Army located at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

Between this time and Slade’s ultimate victory over Beni nearly a year later, Slade operates the line, clears out the outlaws, rescues horses stolen by outlaws and Natives alike, has a memorable breakfast with Samuel Clemens, not yet referred to as Mark Twain, evades a couple assassination attempts by Beni and his men and oversees the Pony Express with riders like Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody, Cody when he was a mere fifteen years old.

The script features some excellent roles up and down the line: the enigmatic Slade, his bold, beautiful and resourceful wife Virginia, Ben Ficklin, Jules Beni, Hickok, Cody, Samuel and Orion Clemens, X. Biedler, Jim Kiskadden, Capt. Williams and Adeline Beni, Jules’ young wife.