William Upshur and friends finally had life at the mountain going their way.

The bridge through the bat caves large entrance was at last finished, as well as the massive wall of logs surrounding it. The Trading Post was in operation, their homes built and occupied. Rodney Taylor, and Peter Birdsong were busy with their duties as Federal Marshals.

They were settled in and happy.

But as we all know, as did they, nothing ever stays the same. There are always those who get in the way of progress, or happiness, no matter how set in concrete. If not someone, then something will always interfere, and in this case, it was fire. Upshur's beloved Paris, Texas was on fire, started by a drunken stepson, and so it happened that they were all visiting their families there at the time.

The challenges they faced

The fire, however, was not all they were to contend with. There was a retreating gang of renegades, led by a Mormon fugitive, hiding out in the old abandoned shipping port of Jonesboro when the fire broke out. The group of men had been chased across three states by both the army, and local law enforcement agencies for months before losing the trail in Texas. A town on fire would furnish just the cover they needed to blow the burned-out bank's iron safe and finance their escape to Mexico. But there was an unexpected obstacle in place.... UPSHUR was in town, as was Marshal Rodney Taylor.