Rafter Crossing was a town building for an explosion between the cattlemen and the miners. Mike Shevlin was hired to stop the miners, but he also had an old debt he wanted to pay back with lead--not gold.

Cal Vallian knew the best way to stay out of trouble was to mind his own business. Then he stopped for a cup of coffee at a stranger's campfire and found himself guiding a family of greenhorns across the prairie-fighting a pack of rustlers on one hand and some mighty unpredictable indians on the other!

A collection of seven short fiction stories and one short novel about fortune seekers, lawbreakers, dreamers, and pioneers in the American frontier.

Clay Bell spent the last six years fighting Indians, rustlers, and the wilderness itself to make the B-Bar ranch the prize of the Deep Creek Range. But Jud Devitt, a ruthless speculator from the East, now threatens everything Clay has worked for. Devitt, holding a contract with the Mexican Central to deliver railroad ties, wants to harvest timber off the land where Clay grazes his cattle. Backing Devitt are shady politicians, a dishonest banker, and...

Matt Bardoul was a good man to have as a friend and a bad one to make trouble with. He was also a single-minded drifter--until he met his match in an outspoken beauty named Jacquine Coyle. She was headed into the Bighorn Mountains with her father and an expedition in search of gold. After Matt signs on to join them, he discovers that there is a group of outlaws in the party--gunfighters and thieves that Matt wouldn't trust for a minute. At first it's...

"I am Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid." This was the boy's mantra as he plodded through the desert alone, left to die by his vengeful grandfather. Johannes Verne was soon to be rescued by outlaws, but no one could save him from the lasting memory of his grandfather's eyes, full of impenetrable hatred. Raised in part by Indians, then befriended by a mysterious woman, Johannes grew up to become a rugged adventurer and an educated man. But even now,...

"At what point does a group of strangers become a community? When young Bendigo Shafter and a ragtag bunch of travelers settle in the rugged Wyoming mountains, they quickly come to depend on a toughness and wisdom many of them never knew they possessed. Led by the beautiful and resourceful widow Ruth Macken, the settlers battle harsh winters, renegade opportunists, and the destructive lure of gold. Through these brutally demanding experiences, young...

Lance Kilkenny's is believed to be the fastest gun in the West, but once the gunfight is over, he disappears. Most folks don't even know what he looks like. Some time back, Mort Davis saved Kilkenny's life after he was shot up. Now Davis needs Kilkenny's help. He has filed a claim on a water hole near Lost Creek in the live oak country. The district is dominated by two wealthy cattlemen, Webb Steele and Chet Lord, each one claiming for himself the...

Pronto Pike and his partner Eddie Holt follow the trail of rustlers who are raiding the Bar J Ranch and who are so ruthless that they have no qualms about murdering a woman. Pronto Pike had punched longhorns along the Rio Grande and ridden the rails back East, but he'd never been in a spot like this before. It had begun with a bitter standoff between a powerful rancher and a homesteading Irishman. It escalated into missing cattle, overlaid brands,...

"Warrior, lover, and scholar, Kerbouchard is a daring seeker of knowledge and fortune bound on a journey of enormous challenge, danger, and revenge. Across Europe, over the Russian steppes, and through the Byzantine wonders of Constantinople, Kerbouchard is thrust into the treacheries, passions, violence, and dazzling wonders of a magnificent time."--Publisher's description.