Prologue
A NAKED WOMAN WAS THE DECOY She lay there in the shadow of the huge boulder, stark naked, gagged and bound with her hands behind her back, her ankles tied to her wrists Indian fashion ... The sadistic outlaws had stripped her of her clothes, tortured and raped her. After taking their fill of her, they left her there to die in the broiling sun ... Her eyes were open, staring at Steve, trying hard to tell him something ... Then he understood. She was trying to warn him that she was a decoy, staked out to bring him within rifle range of murderous men holed up in the rock wall just beyond, perhaps fifty yards away. Two vicious animals, who took what they wanted from women of the desert, and Steve was their target ... But he had no alternative, he had to try and save her....