SUDDEN pretends to be the town drunk in order to find out who are the big cattle cheeses and who knows about a railroad plan which will make the town prosperous.
After about a week SUDDEN askes for a drink at the saloon and famously says when the bartender watches him pour the drink onto the saloon floor " Is this drink mine? then it is mine to pour on the floor."
SUDDEN then becomes the town marshall where he meets a certain young lady who is fond of a local cowboy whose father has been recently bushwhacked and killed. I think his name was Dan Dover. I need to re-read the book to bring it back into my memory. All of the SUDDEN books were brilliantly written and should have been made into films. He was my personal stereo-typical hero of the time reading all of Oliver Strange's westerns. My particular favourite was - SUDDEN PLAYS A HAND - magical reading.