Big for his age, young and impressionable drifter Charlie Chilton is taken in by the gruff leader of a gang of small-time crooks and ne'er do wells who sees something of himself in kindly, wayward Charlie. But Grady Haskell, ambitious ruffian with a shady past, soon joins the gang, convincing Charlie's friends to pursue a big score. Charlie fails to thwart Haskell's bold daylight bank job in prosperous Bakersfield. The heist turns bloody, with one of the victims an innocent little girl. The only gang member caught alive, Big Charlie will soon swing for the crimes. He makes a daring escape, determined to track down Haskell and the gang and prove his innocence. A posse of angry townsmen, hot on Charlie's heels, catches up with him in the High Sierras, far to the north. Charlie barely convinces them to let him live. Weaponless and with a vicious winter storm closing in, Big Charlie must find the killers and thieves before the seething posse turns vigilante and hangs him high. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге RALPH COMPTON SHOTGUN CHARLIE (COMPTON, RALPH)