Cantrell: A Western Duo

In ‘Strangers Talk or Die,’ Jeff Parker comes to an agreement with Fat Sam Scoby, agent for the Skeleton Creek Cross-Bone rustling syndicate, to smuggle gold bars worth $44,000 across the Mexican border. Scoby has stolen the gold from the syndicate. But once Parker is in the United States, he arranges for the gold, now disguised as railway freight, to be shipped to a man named Ed Bellows, and by this means saves himself from being killed by Scoby - who intends to share with no one - when they meet again.

‘Cantrell’ begins with Tom Cantrell’s ill-fated cattle drive across the Texas plains to his home in New Mexico Territory. The trail herd has been victim to persistent looting from bands of Indians. Steve Rogers, Cantrell’s partner in the enterprise, has been murdered, and to Cantrell’s consternation, Rogers’s widow has sold her late husband’s half interest in the ranch to Virginia Bratton. Added to the conflict is Matthew Fallon, to whom the Indians trade the cattle they steal. Taken together, the obstacles in Cantrell’s path to build a successful cattle ranch appear insurmountable.