title: Fury of the Night
author: Releford, Dallas
description: Deciding to resign from the Texas Rangers and marry his sweetheart, Julie Bryant, Cole McClain reluctantly accepts one last assignment; arrest Ben Slade, a notorious outlaw, bandit and killer who is terrorizing West Texas. While on his way to arrest the scoundrel, he stops in South Fork where Julie lives. Puzzled when he finds that the town has been abandoned, he searches for a clue to the mystery. Encountering a strange young woman who seems to have succumbed to shock, he tries to communicate with her, but is unable to do so. Escaping with the girl during a severe storm, running from the Ben Slade gang, who has come to the town to seek revenge against the townspeople because they hung one of his men, they head out of the town and into trouble that never seems to elude them.
   The young woman tells Cole that her name is Gail, but is unable, or unwilling to disclose her last name.
   Encountering a young girl in the West Texas hills, Sarah Russell tells Cole that she has escaped from renegade confederate general, General Jake Stanton who kidnapped the people from South Fork. He is taking the townspeople to the Texas Panhandle where he intends to build a new city, New Washington and supported by imaginary Texas rebels, build the capitol of a new confederate nation. Telling him that Julie is on the wagon train with the other people, Sarah declares that all those people are nothing more than slaves who will provide the labor for Stanton’s mad dreams.
   While visiting Cold Water, a nearby town, they encounter the Stanton gang. Gail mysteriously disappears into their midst. As Cole and Sarah ride out of town hoping to avoid a confrontation, Cole is forced to kill two of Stanton’s men. With Stanton’s soldiers in hot pursuit, they head back into the hills hoping to reach an army post and get help. Sarah is killed in a gun battle with eight of Stanton’s soldiers. Burying her, Cole heads southwest in pursuit of the wagon train and is captured by a rebel patrol. Faced with death, he tries to find a way to escape and rescue Julie. The odds against him do not favor him.