BILLY STEELE: KID RANGER

The Prince of Darkness himself could not have given birth to a more ghoulish son.

The young husband and wifes faces went instantly from a smile of hope to grimaces of stark terror as they saw the merciless marauders gallop towards their tiny wagon, the pounding of the hoof beats played a sinister symphony, shattering their delicate ears. The outlaw army blasted their six-shooters at the fleeing family.

"Keep everyone safe, darling," Robert shouted to his beloved wife as he cracked his whip over the exhausted horses in an attempt to escape the outlaws wrath.

Bang! Crack! Bang! Bang! The trinity of terrors bullets whizzed by Melissa s head, narrowly missing her soft, brown eyes as she attempted to shield her children from harm as the tiny, wooden prairie schooner rumbled haplessly across the desert.

The trinity of terror and their horrific horsemen, pure embodiments of evil, hotly pursued the young family through the sprawling plains, and as the outlaws used their shooting irons to hurl their flaming lead at the family, they turned this Garden of Eden into a raging inferno.

The two boys went from gurgles of joy to cries of anguish as their mother, never giving a thought to her own survival, attempted to hide her infant children. As the pulse pounding hoof beats of the outlaws drew closer to her loved ones, Melissa used her hand like a shovel to dump out flour from the barrel, enough to place her three-year-old boy within the wooden womb, all the while she prayed that no harm befalls him.

Roberts white hat flew from his sweat-drenched head as he glanced back to ascertain his familys safety. Melissa took her two-year-old son and placed him in the steel strongbox, a metal cradle, again saying a few words to the Lord above, she begged the Almighty to keep everyone safe.

Roberts horse team, nearly collapsing from the chase, finally gave in. A bullet from Don Diablos six-shooter found its way into the horses flesh, and caused the steed to fall and the wagon tumbled over. It threw Robert and Melissa from it before it crash landed on its side, miraculously the childrens hiding places remained unscathed.

The legion of the lawless, The Wolf Man, The Dark Skull and Don Diablo, like vultures, surrounded the dilapidated wagon and defenseless family.

"You have something I want," The Dark Skull uttered from under his mask, his heinous head gear shined a murderous glow on his victims. His masked minions swarmed like infernal locusts all over the wagon searching for the couples valuable cargo.

Loosened from its hiding place, the Knoxs black coin, which held the key to a mine full of the most unimaginable power source the West has ever known, simply fell to the dirty ground from the wagon wheel. The black coin radiated its power as it plunged to the dusty trail. And it was grasped by the claw like grip of the trinity of terrors henchmen.

While the monstrous masked men examined this small object, the parents prayed that they would be left in peace and that, their children would not be discovered by the outlaw army.

Suddenly, a banging could be heard from inside the flour barrel hiding the three-year-old boy. While the masked minions kept their guns drawn on the young, innocent family, the Dark Skull himself slithered like the rattlesnake raider to the barrel and grabbed hold of the three-year old boy from his hiding place.

"Another trophy, perhaps he will be more useful to me alive rather than dead," The Dark Skull cried in triumph as he strapped the hysterical infant to his mount.