A simple prisoner transport--it should have been easy. Charlie Cade was a nonviolent mail thief, a pussycat. So maybe Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long's guard was down--until a lovely lady passenger poked a gun in his ribs and her partner pulled over their stagecoach. The couple took his prisoner, and they took his Peacemaker. Longarm doesn't like that.

On the trail of his escapee, Longarm soon discovers Cade's bloody corpse. This wasn't a breakout--it was an execution. Cade knew something that got him killed. Well dang it, nobody kills Longarm's prisoners--except Longarm. And this is one federal marshal who's going to get his gun back--even if he has to pry it out of some cold, dead hands...