Marian T. Place (1910–2006)

From the book flap:

"In the brawling, bloody history of the West, few men lived as dangerously as Bat Masterson. Buffalo hunter, Army scout, Indian fighter, sheriff, U.S. Marshal, his reputation as a fast-draw kept law and order in Dodge City and Tombstone—the two toughest towns in America.

Billy Masterson was raised on the Kansas frontier. At eighteen, bored by farm work, avid for excitement, he joined a hunting expedition up the Sal Fork of the Arkansas. This was Indian territory, forbidden to white men. Billy longed to hunt the swarming buffalo but his boss considered him a greenhorn kid, fit only for menial jobs. He practiced marksmanship, determined to become a crack shot, but his dream seemed hopeless. Then Wyatt Earp taught him to use a six-gun and to speed up his draw. From that chance meeting, Billy's destiny changed; he was caught in a web of drama that shaped the history of the West.

Fearlessly, recklessly, Billy took single-handed vengeance against Kiowa thieves, endured five blood-chilling days of Comanche attack, rescued white children from the savages. He was shot defending the girl he loved and was left with a limp, necessitating the use of a cane. Whacking trouble-makers with the knob of the cane proved very effective and soon he acquired the name of Bat which stuck with him the rest of his life. Despite his crippling wound, he was hired as a deputy by the marshal of Dodge City and later became sheriff. When he heard Wyatt Earp needed him in Tombstone, he hurried to his aid. Summoned back to Dodge City by a false message, he realized too late that he had entered a trap....

Bat Materson's life was violent adventure unremitting conflict. Dale White tells his story with breathless pace, sparing none of the tumult and the terror of the period. Yet at the same time Bat emerges as far more than a stereotyped frontier hero. He was cocky, sometimes arrogant, but a passionate defender of the weak. He was among the last romantics of our wild, romantic past. "… (more)