William Barclay "Bat" Masterson lived an extraordinary life almost impossible to imagine. If it weren't true, no one would believe it. He lived the West when the West was wild— as a buffalo hunter, Indian fighter, army scout, lawman, and gambler. Bat's adventures took him from the Bear Shield Raid to Dodge City in its anything-goes-cow-town heyday and many more events where his significance remains largely unknown. He encountered and ran with some of the West's most colorful characters, deadly gunfighters, and dangerous desperados, a veritable "Who's Who" of old West history. Friends Call Me Bat is his story and those of his friends as he might have told them, complete with an otherworldly twist at the end.