Gold makes a man's eyes grow wide, and his honor grow narrow. --Sam DerrickTen years after the war, Doc Habermann -- now an old drunk, but once an army explosives expert -- seeks someone to help him recover a fortune in Mexican gold bullion stolen from the French before the fall of Maximilian. Sam Derrick and Associates, a security firm created by former Union soldiers -- otherwise known as "guns for hire" -- is up to the task, but the mission involves a risky raid into Mexico with a human map who may be or may not be trustworthy. For Habermann is the only man alive who knows where the gold was stashed when Colonel Alonzo Carasco (derisively called "Chaco" by his enemies) wrested it from the French cavalry detail guarding its transport to the coast. Wary of treachery from Habermann, Derrick and his men endeavor to recover the gold from its remote desert hideaway...but the wily, sadistic Chaco's still out there, and he wants his gold back. At any cost..."Chaco's Gold" is a 22,000-word novella full of intense Western action and adventure.
