In Trout Falls, Zagor and Chico meet Professor Donald Blaine, who is determined to capture a criminal named Colin Randall, nicknamed Skull. Skull is a mutant, endowed with a second brain that grants him the ability to read other people’s minds and, when necessary, disrupt them.
Helping Blaine is the bounty hunter McGinley, who uses rather unorthodox methods to achieve his goals. Zagor confronts Skull himself, who, thanks to his powers, manages to prevail leaving McGinley in a vegetative state but sparing the Spirit with the Hatchet for having saved his life by preventing McGinley from shooting him in the back.
Zagor and Blaine then devise a new plan to capture Skull: pretending to be criminals, they hire two low-level crooks and rob the bank where the mutant has hidden the spoils of his robberies, leaving a trail that allows Skull to track them to their improvised hideout.
The trap works. Zagor faces the mutant once again and overcomes him through sheer force of will. Since Professor Blaine discovered that wood renders Skull’s powers ineffective, the mutant is fitted with a helmet made of that material, preventing him from causing further harm.
