Deadwood, South Dakota, held a place in the pantheon of frontier hellholes. Even to a man like Wild Bill Hickok, it was the toughest town in the west, a town where only the strongest and most daring could survive. But that's exactly where Bill had to go, whether he liked it or not. He was sent there by the Pinkerton Agency to investigate reports of stealing at a particularly dangerous mine—dangerous even by Deadwood standards. The mine was guarded by Regulators, vicious hard cases who made sure no one interfered with their plans. Three Pinkerton men had already been killed when Bill went up against the Regulators—and he was determined not to be the fourth!