Bill Tilghman was the greatest law enforcement officer the West has ever known. His career spanned two centuries of fighting against crime -- he kept dangerous bad men in check, broke up gangs of outlaws, trailed mail thieves and murderous Indians, and survived to battle against gangsters, dope peddlers and bootleggers. No one was so fast on the draw or so reluctant to kill.

At the age of eight Bill was doing man's work on a Kansas farm and protecting the family while his father was away at war. Then he met Wild Bill Hickok, the great Indian fighter, who inspired him to practice marksmanship. Day after day, year after year, he practiced with muskets, Colts, Springfields. His fingers suppled, his wrist grew strong as a steel spring. At sixteen his skill awed and terrified the toughest bullies in the neighborhood. He realized that his guns meant power -- for good or for evil -- and he vowed to use them wisely.

Tilghman earned his living as a hunter, gold prospector, stagecoach guard, railroad worker, Army scout, ending up in Dodge City. Wyatt Earp, the town marshal, made him his deputy. He also served under Bat Masterson, and finally became a full-fledged lawman. With only one deputy, Bill did what no other marshal was able to accomplish -- he enforced the no-weapons ordinance, kept the peace and killed no man.

While peace prevailed, hard times came to Dodge City -- drought, an all-time low in the cattle market, a deep decline in the economy -- and many were forced to seek a livelihood elsewhere, among them Bill Tilghman -- and he settled in Oklahoma.

For thirty-three years he served in law enforcement capacities. When he died in the line of duty, he was mourned and eulogized as the man "who possessed so much physical bravery combined with so much moral courage . . . gently, quiet-spoken, he brought great new dimension and prestige to the role of the peace officer."

~From the book.

These days, however, young readers know more about Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson than conservationists, and I began wondering if any man had ever been the equal of these and still had racked up long years of law enforcement through the less spectacular but very important apprenticeships of serving as a deputy, under-sheriff and deputy U.S. Marshal. When I discovered William Tilghman I felt I had come across the story of a most worthwhile, adventuresome too-long-unappreciated American peace officer, the last of the really great frontier marshals. After I had read a great deal more, I learned that for Earp and Masterson and Tilghman the fast draw and deadly marksmanship were the result of long years of practice; that courage also developed out of constant challenge; that independence grew out of being willing to work and accept responsibilities and making one's own way through good times and bad. Earp, Masterson and Tilghman came from similar beginnings -- all frontiered in their teens. But from there on they went separate ways, and only Tilghman kept his talents working for the good things in life and set a worthy example of citizenship.

~Author quote from the dust jacket