Charles Crafts

Bat Masterson mixes in politics when President Rutherford B. Bayes and General William Tecumseh Sherman, the scourge of Atlanta, come to Dodge City on a campaign tour. Bat goes into action when unrest threatens because there are rumors that ex-Confederates threaten violence to Sherman.

Bat is asked to take half interest in the Long Branch Saloon to help make it profitable. He does so by hiring a female piano player but a crooked mayor and Marshal force him to create the Dodge City Peace Commission to clean up the town.

Fifteen years after the fact, Bat Masterson finds himself involved in the Lincoln Assassination conspiracy. The niece of John Surratt, an acquitted suspect, begs Bat to prevent publication of scurrilous story concerning Surratt's involvement in the tragedy. This is Part One of a Two Part story.