Devil's Manhunt

Originally published in the February 1950 issue of Famous Western, this gold-mining adventure is lent significant realism by Hubbard's own experience leading a mining crew on a West Indies mineralogical expedition in the early 1930s. After months of laboring in Arizona, Tim Beckdolt strikes gold. But just as he sets out to sell his stockpile of ore, two sadistic villains—a Swede named Sven and a Virginian named Bonnet—step in to demand his claim. R.F. Daley narrates while Edoardo Ballerini, Josh Robert Thompson, Phil Proctor, and Jim Meskimen voice the four-character cast. As with most other of Hubbard's Western tales, the small size of the cast is a boon, swirling the atmospheric dust up around listeners to create a simultaneous sense of intimacy and impending danger in the manner of a battered lean-to ready to blow at any turn. Highly recommended for anyone game for a campy Western taking a dark plot bent, who will hear Sven's and Bonnet's taunting voices long after the fire is snuffed. [Includes the Western stories "Johnny, the Town Tamer" and "Stranger in Town," both originally published in 1949.—Ed.]