It all started with a very special gift ... a gold-plated, silver-inlaid Commemorative rifle, specially made on the express orders of the Winchester Family for presentation to Lester Dukes, Governor of Texas. But when the rifle was stolen, Yancey Bannerman and Johnny Cato set out to track down the thieves. The mission wasn't official—they were doing it as a favor to Winchester's representative, Lang Huckabee. Before it was over, however, good men and bad would die wholesale, the Governor's daughter, Kate, would find herself in the clutches of a homicidal madman ... and death would claim one of the heroes who went after ... Mad Dog Hallam.