It was the deadliest weapon in the West--a gun that could down a whole regiment, a whole Indian tribe of a whole town without even trying. They called it the Devil Gun.
Captain Dusty Fog of the Texas Light Cavalry had orders to capture that gun from a pair of Union Army fanatics--and out to stop him was the entire strength of the war-crazy Indian nations. The odds were not good. But Dusty had no choice--at stake were the lives of every man, woman and child in Texas.
John Thomas Edson is an English writer of Westerns.
He was born in 1928.He was obsessed with Westerns from an early age and often "rewrote" cowboy movies that he had seen at the cinema. One thing that always intrigued him was the minutiae—how did the baddie's gun jam? What were the mechanics of cheating at cards? How did Westerners really dress and speak?
His writing was helped to develop by a schoolteacher who encouraged him. Now lives in Leicester, Leicestershire.[citation needed]
During his 20s and 30s, Edson served in His Majesty's Armed Forces for 12 years as a Dog Trainer. Cooped up in barracks for long periods, he devoured books by the great escapist writers (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert McCraig, Nelson C. Nye and Edgar Wallace). He also sat through hours of movies starring John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Errol Flynn and his all-time favourite, Audie Murphy.
His first appearance in print was "Hints On Self-Preservation when attacked by a War Dog" in the Osnabrück camp magazine Shufti in 1947. Acquiring a typewriter in the early 1950s and putting it to good use while posted to Hong Kong, by the time of his discharge he had written 10 Westerns, an early version of Bunduki and the first of the short detective-type stories starring Waco.
Upon leaving HM forces, JT won second prize (with Trail Boss) in the Western division of a Literary Competition run by Brown & Watson Ltd, which led to the publication of 46 novels with them, becoming a major earner for the company.
He had the need for supplementary income from time-to-time and also served as a postman, and the proprietor of a fish 'n' chip shop. Furthermore, he branched out as a writer and wrote five series of short stories (Dan Hollick, Dog Handler) for the Victor boys papers, and wrote the "box captions" for comic strips, which instilled discipline and the ability to convey maximum information with minimum words.
His writing career forged ahead when he joined Corgi Books in the late '60s, which gave JT exposure through a major publishing house, as well as the opportunity to branch out from the core Westerns into the Rockabye County, the science-fiction hero Bunduki and other series.
A Union officer learns of a plot to arm the Indian tribes and send them on a rampage across the South. Giving up his career, he heads off to try and warn the Confederate forces. Luckily he meets up with Dusty Fog and they head off to see if they can avert a disaster.
This book tells the story of how Dusty Fog got the name 'Magic Hands' among the various Indian tribes of Texas. A Union lieutenant discovers a plot to arm the Indians of Texas with rifles and a machine gun and send them on a rampage in the Lone Star State. Having grown up in New Mexico he can visualize only too well the devastation this will cause among the civilian population there, being mostly women and children with the men away at war. So Lt. Jackson Hardin Marsden makes a terrible choice and crosses the battle-lines to warn the Confederacy of the danger. Luckily for him, Ole Devil [Jackson Baines] Hardin is his godfather and not only listens to him but sends his best man along to stop the plot; Captain Dustine Edward Marsden Fog is not only the nephew of Ole Devil, he is the godson of Lt. Marsden's father (does that make them god-cousins?). Ole Devil also reaches out across the battle-lines and ensures that his godson's sacrifice won't cost him his career. Having left Red Blaze in charge of Company C, Dusty is assisted by his loyal sergeant Billy Jack and scout Kiowa. Also along is the father of one of his future best friends, Sam Ysabel. Dusty would not meet Loncey Dalton Ysabel, know to most as the Ysabel Kid, until after Sam Ysabel was murdered. Lt. Marsden insists on seeing the mission through and along the way falls for a Yankee hating guerrilla girl. When they are unable to stop the conspirators from reaching the sacred meeting grounds, Dusty and Sam Ysabel must confront the enemy in front of hundreds of potentially hostile Indians and break the medicine magic of the weapon they call 'the devil gun'.