THE HANGMAN OR THE WIDOW? California lawmen have nabbed Chauncey Mahoney, alias the Stovespit Kid, and it"s Longarm"s job to bring him back to Denver to stand trial for the murder of a U.S. Marshal. But the Kid doesn"t stay jailed long. Like spit on a hot stove, he vanishes from the Oakland lockup.Longarm follows the Kid"s trail through the corrupt maze of San Francisco"s Barbary Coast and across half the West -- determined to bring him back for a fair trial. That is, if he can catch the slippery felon before the murdered marshal"s widow curls her pretty finger "round a trigger for a ladylike helping of .45 caliber justice...