Once a successful prospector. now Banning Clarke found himselftheharried of a lucrative mining company. trading his beloveddesertlife for marriage to a social-climbing wife. Adding insulttoinjury. Clarke signed the lion's share of his fortune over tohiswife only to have her bequeath it all to her calculating mother. Widowed and all but broke. Clarke still hasanace-in-the-hole. His crusty prospecting partner holdsthecontrolling stock in Clarke's mining interest. But a flock ofhumanvultures is poised to swoop down and pick the comrades clean.Itsup to Perry Mason to keep the fight fair and legal. yetsomeone'sout to thin the ranks of justice, and if arsenic poisoningwon't dothe deed, then lead poisoning in the form of a bullet-wil