Even among the toughest hardcases in the West, Abilene, Kansas, was known as pure hell on earth, a wide-open wild town that was reined in only briefly—when Wild Bill Hickok was its sheriff. Ever since he rode out of Abilene, Wild Bill had never wanted to go back. But now he had to. A lot of people were dying fast there. The Kansas Pacific Railroad was laying track where somebody obviously didn't want it, and bullets were flying thick and furious. The Pinkerton Agency needed their best operative to get to the bottom of it and that meant only one man—Wild Bill. But as hard as it was for Wild Bill to go back, he knew there was a bigger challenge ahead of him—staying alive once he got there.