Weird Western Tales #28 (1975)

After fishing a job, Jonah Hex is given a telegraph from the Huddleston Downing Express Company, which is seeking to hire Hex to protect a stagecoach transporting money, as the company has been targeted by Jake Hauschel and his gang of thieves. Arriving in the town of South Pass City, Wyoming, Hex is shown that the stagecoach that he is riding in is reinforced with metal and that the route the coach will be taking has been kept secret and will not revealed to anybody until the following day. What isn't anticipated is Mr. Preston's aid, Sims, who also knows the route the coach will take is in league with Hauschel for part of the loot, however when he reports to Hasuchel that the coach will travel through the "Narrows" (a narrow canyon trail) Hasuchel kills Sims. The next day, the coach is ambushed in the Narrows, and due to the paths literally narrow length, Hex and the other guards are unable to properly defend the money. Hex tries to make a break for it, to take out their attackers and is winged with a bullet for his trouble. While he is playing possum, the coach is fire bombed and the other guards are shot, and the crooks take the loot after the fire is put out and the storage box cools down. After reporting back (and not getting paid) for the failed job, Hex is later visited by Cobb Weisner, who tells Hex that his cousin is a member of the gang. He tells Hex that his cousin once dropped the fact that the gang sometimes hides out at an abandoned homesteaders cabin, and offers to help him for a cut of all the robbers loot. Hex turns down the offer, however decides to check out this lead so he can recover the loot and earn his pay. However, members of the gang get the drop on Hex and leave him out bound to a make shift crusafix. Hex knocks himself unconscious while trying to break free. Meanwhile, Hauschel's gang members begin to betray each other and after a series of back shooting, only Cobb's cousin survives however he is seriously wounded. When Hex finds him, he had been caught by a group of towns people who deny him medical attention unless he tells them the location of the stolen loot. However, Cobb's cousin dies before he can tell anyone, as the last survivor the money is considered lost.