Stretch looked likely to hang for another man's crime, and the Wardtown calaboose was escape-proof. But Stretch's ace-in-the-hole was still loose, and Larry Valentine could not be deterred. During his quest for the truth he fought off local roughnecks and gunmen. The climax was a courtroom drama Wardtown would never forget.
Leonard Frank Meares (13 February 1921 – 4 February 1993) was an Australian writer of western fiction. He wrote over 700 Westerns for the Australian paperback publishers Cleveland and Horwitz using the pseudonym "Marshall McCoy", "Marshall Grover", "Ward Brennan" and "Glenn Murrell".
Among his most famous characters were "Larry & Stretch", Larry Valentine and Stretch Emerson. In the United States (Bantam Books) they they were known as "Larry & Streak" (Larry Vance & Streak Everett)" and the in the Nordic countries they were known as "Bill & Ben".