BILLY STEELE CHAPTER FIVE: MENACE OF THE MOLE PEOPLE

He used his magical lariat to save the town of Paradise Valley and Fort Yuma from further being pulled below the Earth's surface.

While his black cape swirled in the wind, the Warrior wrapped his rope around and around the entire town and stockade. Each and every building, barn, store and stockade became fastened by the warrior's endless lasso.

His rope sparkled with magical radiance and was infinite in length as it surrounded and bound miles of township and Holt's Rangers' fortress. Once the Warrior felt the rope was securely fashioned around the town and fort, he pulled and yanked and pulled relentlessly until every structure was once again above ground and safely on solid surface. The warrior's feat of strength was greater than Hercules when he held the world on his shoulders. In this colossus tug of war, the warrior's magic for good triumphed over the underground forces used for evil. The Warrior's muscles beaded torrents of sweat and he yelled a mighty cry of anguish as he strained to save the surface community and its protectors.

Soon the Warrior's muscles relaxed as he saw Paradise Valley and Fort Yuma standing tall and as proudly as ever. Fort Yuma's stars and stripes waved triumphantly as all were back where they belonged. But then, a tremendous explosion shattered the warrior's ears. Boom! The mole people's underground kingdom burst apart when the rampaging radiation ignited the underground city's generators. The power that gave the mutants life, now took it away in one last angry outburst.

The townspeople and cavalrymen, including Col. Tim, Sgt. Big Boy and Cpl. Jubilee, all cheered the Lightning Warrior as he resurrected the town and fort from certain death. But the Warrior felt only horror throughout his soul as from the corner of his eye he saw Cassidy sprawled motionless on the ground.

The Warrior raced to Cassidy's side. He gently cradled the young beauty in his arms. But it was too late. Her pink cheeks became ghastly red from the radiation's poison and then her face turned the morbid white of death. The Warrior wept long and loudly at her passing. Cassidy's sword, still loyal, rested by her side, as the Warrior gripped her only hand in his. And then he kissed her farewell on her cheek. The essence of Billy Steele in the Warrior's body cried as well, for he will forever miss her warmth, beauty and bravery.

The Warrior looked into the eyes of White Eagle for a miracle. But the Indian wizard intuitively knew a hand higher than his magic had intervened in her fate, and the grim look in the sad Indian's face told the warrior that Cassidy would stay at peace with her family for an eternity.

The Warrior grieved more deeply, then he was approached by the mutant mole children. Miraculously, these children, who were condemned to die by the radiation's infection, discovered the secret path created by Cassidy and they were able to escape the underground city's destruction. Somehow, the disease that gripped them while they were underground disappeared from their bodies once they walked freely upon the Earth's surface.

The mole children joined the Warrior and White Eagle in mourning their savior, Cassidy, and after a silent vigil, the warrior asked them of their plans.

"A higher power saw to it that we survived," a brown haired mole boy told the Warrior. "But we can never live on the surface. Our differences are too great and we will only become outcasts in this world-hunted and scorned."

A pigtailed mole girl told the Warrior they'll try to rebuild their underground mole city using the power within them selves. And once rebuilt, they hope to live with the surface dwellers in friendship.

As the mole children made their way down the hole, the Warrior could hear the hoof beats of Col.