The Floating Outfit

Three men rode down the hill towards the body of the dead cavalry officer. On the right: a Texan-small and insignificant-looking-called Dusty Fog. On the left: Mark Counter, known and feared acros the Southwest. In the middle, hands never far from the butts of his guns rode the Ysabel Kid, six feet of slim and deadly manhood. Three men with purpose in their hearts and death in their holsters.

Assigned to protect Crown Prince Rudolph of Bosgravinia while he was on a hunting expedition in Texas, Ole Devil Hardin’s Floating Outfit knew that their task would be anything but easy. Dusty Fog thought he had killed top assassin Beguinage, but soon they concluded that “Beguinage is very much alive!” Now it was guns blazing in a bloody outcome.

The task had seemed simple enough to the Ysabel Kid. All he had to do was ride into Mexico, find the man who had killed James Bowie at the Alamo and ask him to return Bowie’s legendary knife to its rightful owners. Nothing simpler ... or so the Kid thought ... But before the job was through he had locked horns with some mighty bad hombres.

Acknowledged as Europe’s premier assassin, Beguinage came and went unnoticed by all except the victims. And had never failed in an assignment. The Governor of Texas calls in the help of the Ole Devil Hardin's Floating Outfit. The only way Dusty Fog saw of saving a European Crown Prince was to use himself as bait for a trap—knowing that when it was sprung, either Beguinage or he would be dead...

THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN! That was the message from the Brotherhood for Southron Freedom who had gathered a band of desperate, dangerous men and armed them with repeating rifles. Belle Boyd, now working for the U.S. Secret Service, was on their trail. She knew that she would need help to defeat them. Her message to her superiors was simple: "Send me three regiments of Cavalry... or Dusty Fog!"

Hell - Palo Duro: Dusty Fog had ridden in and shot his way back out again. But had left behind men and women at the mercy of the Kweharehnuh Comanches. So he decided that he must go back. Despite all the dangers it entailed, the Ysabel Kid and Waco insisted upon accompanying him. The mysterious man called Break O’Day rode with them but he intended to be the only one to come out of Hell alive.

To be made welcome at the town called Hell in the Palo Duro, a man had to have a price on his head and be willing to share his loot with the mayor. Determined to wipe out the outlaws’ stronghold, the floating outfit set off on another dangerous assignment. Not only did Dusty Fog, the Ysabel Kid and Waco have to get by the Kweharehnuh, they had to try to stay alive once they reached Hell!

During the War Between the States, Belle Boyd had rendered loyal service to Dixie. At its end, she had taken the oath of allegiance to the Union and was now a trusted member of the U.S. Secret Service. Any clash of loyalties was averted when the Frenchman, a leader of the Brotherhood for Southron Freedom, caused the deaths of two of Belle’s friends. The Rebel Spy swore that she would avenge them.

In 1873 the Colt factory produced a new revolver. They called it the Model P. In Mexico there was trouble: an old friend of the Ysabel Kid disappeared, believed murdered by the revolutionaries. That brought Dusty Fog, Mark Counter, the Ysabel Kid and Waco into Mexico. When they returned, the Model P Colt guns bore a new name—men called them the Peacemakers....

A big-city detective had a lot to learn in Texas. Even a tough one like Ed Ballinger. He'd tracked the Big Man to Jack City, where he owned the local law and was surrounded but hired guns. Ballinger was in trouble. The mobster from Chicago was riding high--until Dusty Fog and the Floating Outfit rode into his life. Then his trouble really began...

When a cowhand was set a-foot, there was usually trouble … and gunplay. Dusty Fog knew this, but he still set a-foot the man he blamed for the loss of an OC Connected trail herd and the injuries to some of his crew. He knew too that the cowhand he was disgracing was real fast with a gun—and knew that gun might be turned against him. The cowhand’s only name was Waco …

Few men were able to match Mark Counter’s Herculean strength. And then Tiny Crumble came along...Then a robbery took place—one that could only have been committed by a man of exceptional strength. As Dusty Fog, Mark Counter, and the Ysabel Kid looked down at the shattered skull of the victim of the crime, they began to wonder if the ‘Gentle Giant’ was really as gentle as he seemed...

When Dusty Fog was ambushed and nearly killed by a band of hired killers, only the intervention of a friendly stranger saved his life. From then on, Dusty knew he had to obey the Texan code of honor and repay his debt to Raymond Sangster. However, Fog did not envisage the cost of settling his debt of gratitude—for the price was the building of a railroad across Floating Outfit land!

When Miss Olga Chernyshevsky was shown how easy it was to make diamonds she demanded that she too should attempt the experiment—and accidently produced emeralds. The mistake meant she had to run for her life, straight into a poker game which resulted in the fight of a lifetime.Ole Devil Hardin’s floating outfit were trying to keep the peace in Mulrooney—against heavy odds.

With the coming of the British Railroad Commission to town, Freddie Woods' past is exposed and is threatened with extradition to stand trial for murder. Dusty Fog has to face the decision of his life. As Town Marshal, should he arrest the woman he loves? Or should he betray his oath of office and prevent the course of justice?

When the beautiful daughter of an English Lord is chosen Mayor of a wide-open Kansas cowtown, she needs a Marshal who can think as well as shoot--and who can shoot better than any man alive. Waco was her man...armed with a brace of Army Colts and bore a log-sized chip on his shoulder. Then fate stepped in and that's where Dusty Fog and the Floating Outfit come in...

Dusty Fog knew it was big trouble this when he agreed to become marshal of Mulrooney, Kansas—knew it and accepted it because he had good men at his back. Yet it seemed that not even the combined talents of Dusty Fog, Mark Counter, the Ysabel Kid, Waco and gambler Frank Derringer could handle the feud between Freddie Woods and her chief rival in the saloon business, Buffalo Kate.

Karl Mallick was a genius at the real estate business. Anybody who was reluctant to sell at his price had his mind changed by Mallick's Double K gun thugs. Then Mallick hit a snag. Three Texans were waiting at the Lasalle ranch: The Ysabel Kid was one of the men. Mark Counter was another. The third man was small and insignificant looking . . . His name was Dusty Fog!

The sign said "Moondog" but the town was called Yellowdog. It was a yellow town of cowards, hardcases and damn fools. Danny Fog had died trying to bring some law to Yellowdog. The townsfolk stood by and watch as he was brutally beaten to death in the streets. His older brother Dusty and the Floating Outfit didn't intend to repeat the error. If no man in Yellowdog would back him ... Sam Colt would!

Luke Crammer had slaughtered a white buffalo which could easily launch a full-scale war between the Kiowas and the white men of North Texas. Sioux war-chief, Grey Bear had been kidnapped by a bunch of hardcases and branded a thief; he could not accept such shame and do nothing. Only one person could possibly off the trouble—the Ysabel Kid , the man the Pehnane Comanches called Cuchilo … The Knife.

To Gavin Gartree’s bunch of hardcases, “work” was a cussword, “innocent” was a come-on, and a young pilgrim girl was an invitation to a molestation. But nothing was quite as it seemed. The young pilgrim girl in question was accompanied by a seemingly inconsequential Texan named Dusty Fog. Though small in stature, he was a giant when it came to fighting and always made his first shot the last shot.

The war with the North was over, but Texas was still a battleground. Outlaw bands ravaged whole towns, drenching the Border Country with blood. Deadliest of all was the silent band of knife-artists know as "the Bad Bunch". The Floating Outfit were all that stood between Texas and the law of the blade! But even Fog, Counter and the Ysabel Kid found The Bad Bunch a mite trickier than expected!

Mark Counter made his living breaking wild horses. Taming wild women was another story altogether. And "wild" was too tame a word for the likes of Mary Jane Canary, Madame Bulldog and the notorious outlaw know the world over as Calamity Jane...

Three hombres were robbing cowhands of their cattle-drive pay. And the Ysabel Kid had been deputized to stop them and he intended to bring justice to this lawless land. But another gang was also at work in the Texas hills, and they had snatched the granddaughter of Ole Devil Hardin, from the local stagecoach. Now the Kid wants more than justice, he wants revenge.

The landgrabbers were after Mort Lewis's spread. But there was one problem. Mort's grandfather was a Comanche War Chief and if Mort were killed a thousand warriors would avenge his death. Two men rode to stop the war before it began. One was the Rio Hondo Gun Wizard, Dusty Fog. The other was half-Comanche like Mort, the "white Indian" known throughout the new State of Texas as...the Ysabel Kid.