Richard Nobles and Cundo Rey, small time hustlers though they are, are cut of the same cloth as are Braden and his compeers in Hombre (1961; see separate entry). There is no real difference between Nobles and Rey and the typical bad guys of the western fiction genre. Joe LaBrava, like John Russell of Hombre, is unable to remain the dropout he had become. His social conscience, romantic nature, and Secret Service background recall the private eyes of Chandler, Hammett, and Macdonald.