I had never heard of STEVEN C LAWRENCE so I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this book.  Turns out NIGHT OF THE GUNMAN is a doggone good read. I will definitely be looking for more by Steven C Lawrence.

The story opens with the funeral of the town’s longtime sheriff.  OLD JACK BENT had been the town’s sheriff for 16 years and was well-liked.  He had hired MATT DONOVAN four years earlier as his deputy to help him tame the wilder elements of the town during its trail driving heydays. Now that the sheriff’s gone and the trail driving days are behind them, the town council don’t feel they need a “quick gun” who commands a higher pay so they don’t want Donovan as sheriff.  

Instead, when they realized he was dying, the town council sent for the sheriff’s son JOHNNY BENT to be their new sheriff.  Despite the fact that Bent had a falling out with this father before hitting the trail five years earlier, they are hopeful he will be much like his father. Until election time, Donovan is serving as the sheriff with the expectation that Bent will most likely replace him.  In the meantime, they insist Donovan take Bent on as a deputy.

Unbeknownst to the town council, Bent has been riding the outlaw trail with the NATE DRAGO gang.  In addition, the minute he heard his father was dying, he started planning to rob the town’s bank.  He views being a lawman the perfect cover.  He can keep an eye on Donovan and be in a good position to kill him, if necessary.

The bank robbery doesn’t quite go as planned.  The Drago gang gets away with the money in the vault, but they kill the banker and Nate Drago’s kid brother is seriously wounded by a gunshot from Sheriff Donovan’s gun.  They aren’t able to keep ahead of the posse and so Drago’s kid brother is captured and taken back to town to the doctor’s office and then later moved to the jail.

The gang circles back and the rest of NIGHT OF THE GUNMAN is spent with the gang holed up in the saloon and Drago and Bent plotting how to get Drago’s kid brother out of jail.  

Things get complicated when one of Drago’s men is captured and another one is seriously wounded in a gunfight.  Then Bent has second thoughts about hitting the outlaw trail again.  He wants his share of the loot and to help Drago get his kid brother out of jail, but he also wants the sheriff position and the he receives from the townspeople.  On top of that, he wants Sheriff Donovan’s fiance SUSAN WELLS.  He makes a deal with Drago to keep his involvement with the robbery and the gang a secret and plans to kill Sheriff Donovan.

Our lead character, Matt Donovan isn’t entirely comfortable with Bent.  Some sixth sense and subtle clues have him distrusting Old Jack Bent’s son.  He has no solid evidence to back up his suspicions but he keeps Bent close and watches and listens to everything he does and says.  This causes tension and eventually a fight between him and Wells.  She grew up with Bent and even dated him when they were younger.  She considers him a friend and doesn’t understand Donovan’s distrust or why Donovan won’t ask the townsmen for help fighting Drago.  

The townspeople favor Bent more and more as the story progresses which, coupled with Donovan’s suspicions, causes some tension between him and the town council.   Bent’s subtle hints that Donovan may not be a good sheriff doesn’t help any.   And of course, his special insight, due to his role with the gang, gives him an extra edge over Sheriff Donovan, making him look more confident and capable.

The whole town is on ‘lockdown’ with Drago and his much reduced gang holed up in the saloon with his hostages and Donovan holed up in the jailhouse with two key witnesses to the robbery, Bent and the jailhouse keeper.  They try to get food into the jailhouse several times but are unsuccessful.  The mercantile owner wouldn’t open the doors because he’s afraid of retaliation; for good reason.  And Donovan doesn’t want Wells to bring food from her restaurant because he doesn’t want Drago to know of his connection to her.  

A further complication develops when Drago’s kid brother die.  Bent and Donovan both agree it’s best to keep the information from Drago.  Donovan’s reasons are to keep Drago from taking revenge on the whole town.  Bent’s reasons are to make sure he gets his part of the loot and Drago doesn’t kill him for not getting his brother out of there sooner.  

Things come to a head when Drago sets the doctor’s house on fire. Donovan decides it’s time to lead Drago out of the town and away from it’s citizens.  He tells Drago he’s transferring the kid and the other prisoner to another town.  He grabs some horses and a wagon and puts the now dead Drago kid in the wagon. By this time, he knows Bent is in cahoots with Drago so he puts Bent in the driver’s seat with no gun.

The rest of the book is about his race out of town and the subsequent gunfight with Drago in the hills.  After the fighting is over, the townspeople, with Wells in the lead, traipse into the hills to see if anyone survived the gunbattle.

Definitely a book worth reading again.

 

Back Cover - Leisure Book (1974)

Cigars lit up: 2

Pipe: 1

Gunplay: 6

Bushwhacking: 2

Murder: 1

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Weekly Quote: A Man's Mistakes

"A man is measured by his mistakes, whether he climbs on them or is buried by them."

--from Archie Joscelyn's SHERIFF OF RED WOLF 

Triple Western Volume 12 No 3 April 1953 - Pulp Magazine Review

Wow, this is like reviewing three novels at once!  Or maybe, “novelettes”.  This issue of TRIPLE WESTERN includes three novels, a short story and a ‘true story’ about a western legend named Jack Slade.  

The three novels include RAMPAGE RANGE by Leslie Ernenwein, HIGH ROAD TO HELL by Bryce Walton and SPAWN OF THE GUN PACK by T T Flynn.

RAMPAGE RANGE was my first introduction to Leslie Ernenwein.  I loved this story so much, I sought out the paperback edition and other novels by Ernenwein.  The story opens with JIM MAIBEN being freed from prison after spending three years there for an arson he didn’t commit.  He was found guilty of burning out a settler.  Maiben is fully convinced that one of his friends did it.  He also has a grudge against the land agent who testified against him. It was this land agent’s eye witness testimony that he feels swayed the jury to convict him.  When he returns to his home, one of the first things he does is to attack and beat up the land agent CLYDE MATABELLE on sight.  

Opening spread for Rampage Range

He spends his time between trying to figure out who really burned the settler’s shack, why he was framed for it and why and how calves are being rustled from all the ranchers.  Other mysteries have him puzzled as well. Who is trying to kill him from ambush?  Why did the sheriff’s quiet daughter marry BART VOLPERT, a man she clearly doesn’t love and is viciously abusive of her?  Why did the banker warn him, from his deathbed, to watch the sheriff?

There’s two love interests here for Maiben.  ANNETTE HILL, his ex-fiancee who returned his wedding ring after he was convicted and married one of his friends.  And GAIL STEFAN whose father bought Maiben’s ranch from the banker’s wife after the banker died.  Both have their complications.  His ex-fiancee is unhappy in her marriage; her husband can’t afford her lifestyle and has turned to drinking.  She flirts with Maiben the first chance she gets, which sets her husband against him and they get involved in a brutal fistfight.  And Gail, Maiben believes, is set to marry the skunk Clyde Mattabelle.   

Jim meets Gail

This is a good read for a number of reasons.  Mostly it’s just a good mystery, but also it’s interesting to watch Maiben struggle with letting go of his hate.  He eventually realizes that the friends he thought were his enemies are his friends; the ones he thought were harmless or were friends aren’t either of those things and the ones he thought lied or wrongfully convicted him were honest citizens who had been misled. One of those he counted as an enemy actually saves his life.  

I love the way Ernenwein ends the story at the same place Maiben arrived when he returned home;  with Gail Stefan surprising him at a water hole.

FAVORITE LINE:  “Life played odd tricks on a man, pushing him every which way, sometimes up so high he felt tall as a windmill, then down to where he was lower than snake sign in a wheel rut.”  I’ve gotta remember that one…”lower than snake sign in a wheel rut.”

Cigarettes lit up: 7

Cigars: 1

Ambush: 3

Gunplay: 2

Fistfights: 3

Red Jack and Lo

In HIGH ROAD TO HELL by Bryce Walton, “RED JACK” DONNOVAN is a red-headed outlaw trying to quit the owlhoot trail.  He’s got himself a stake from gambling and has left behind some counties where he’s wanted for stage and bank robbery.  Although he’s trying to give up the outlaw life, he still has no respect for stage lines and banks and no use for the law. He feels banks are as crooked as the crooks and didn’t come by their money honestly.  And having been involved in the Lincoln County wars in New Mexico, his attitude is “I don’t give a tinker’s dam...what side of the law a man’s supposed to be on. This side of the law depends on who happens to be running the country. If a no-good murdering polecats running things and you’re on his side, you’re on the law’s side.”

Ironically, in the opening pages, he stops a stagecoach robbery simply because the holdup men are bent on murdering the shotgun guard.  And despite his avowed “lone wolf” status, he intervenes in the trouble between some nesters (a man and his granddaughter) and a group of masked vigilantes who want to set them afoot and burn their wagon.  His reasons include recognizing the voice of one of the vigilantes as the man who killed his father and admiring the beauty and courage of the woman who, with shotgun in hand, stood up to the masked men.

Although he rescues them in the standoff, Red Jack is wounded and the man and his granddaughter are thrown in jail.  Red Jack arrives in town in time for the old man’s hanging and the young woman’s lashing.   After another failed attempt to rescue them, Red Jack lands in jail.  After the old man’s hanging, and the woman’s whip lashings, she’s now set for revenge against one of the vigilantes.  Her name is LO (short for LORENE).  And with the addition of another jailbird named HIGH who is also set out for revenge against one of the vigilantes, their “group” of lone wolfs is complete: High, Lo and Jack.  And each avowing they need no one else, no need to set down roots and only wanting to avenge themselves, they swear they won’t take sides to help the settlers against the rancher vigilantes.

Red Jack sides the settlers and gets his revenge too

Of course, they do end up helping the settlers and naturally, they also get their revenge. It’s captivating to watch how Lo and High always defer the decision to go it alone or take part in defending the settlers.  Lo appears to want to help them but puts on that she is a loner too and just wants to get her revenge and hit the owlhoot trail with Red Jack.  And despite the fact that High had the perfect opportunity to get his revenge, he doesn’t take it because Red Jack has decided to help the settlers after all.

FAVORITE LINES:  

“You’ve got a long nose, but you’re pushing it into the wrong place.”

“When you try riding beyond your name, you’re riding into nowhere.”

“You got to be on a side when the chips fall.  If you ain’t on one side or the other, you ain’t anywhere at all.”

“It’s damn nice of you to invite us to die in such good company.”

“Every man jack has his own trail.  Me, I’ll take some land so’s I’ll always know what the hell I’m fighting for.”

Cigarettes lit up: 3

Gunplay: 5

The final novel is T T Flynn’s SPAWN OF THE GUN PACK.  This is another owlhoot story.  This time, the outlaw isn’t necessarily trying to quit the outlaw trail; he’s looking for his mother who he thought was dead.  His outlaw father had taken off with him when he was a baby because he was afraid his mother would ‘spoil him’ for the outlaw life.  His father was the notorious LONG TOM KINNARD and had told his son that his mother was dead.

Tom Brush meets Sue and Old King Wilson

TOM KINNARD, the owlhoot son, doesn’t find out the truth until his father is killed in a shootout at their cabin.  A shootout in which Tom kills his first man and is now wanted by the law himself.  He changes his name to TOM BRUSH to avoid the law.  But then makes a name as a notorious outlaw himself under the Tom Brush name and seems set on living the same life his father led.  That is, the life of a lone wolf, not trusting anyone, because everyone is for himself and is dishonest and can’t be trusted.  He lives this way for five years, while hiding out in Mexico, then riding the trail to Colorado, up to Nevada and back down to New Mexico looking for his mother.  Then Brush meets up with OLD KING WILSON who helps hide him from pursuers, SUE BAKER who medicates and binds up his cut feet despite his surlinesss and Sue’s father BILLY BAKER who helped his mother when she left his father.  These, and his mother, change his attitude.

SPAWN OF THE GUN PACK was copyrighted by STREET & SMITH PUBLICATIONS INC in 1941 and originally published in WESTERN STORY in April 19, 1941.

Cigarettes lit up: 2

Gunplay: 1

Knife Fight: 1

The short story, “Slow Poison” by Jonathan Craig, is about a man who spends two years looking for his wife and the lowdown skunk who ran off with her.  They had sold his house and mercantile and took off together while he was on a business trip. He catches up to them but when he finds out their fate, he changes his mind about killing them.

“Desperado Slade” is the final story.  By Gladwell Richardson, it is brief and professes to be the “true story” of the life of a hardcase gunslinger & cold-blooded murderer named JACK SLADE.  He ended up working for the Overland Stage Company, but was eventually fired as his style of law-keeping became problematic for the stage company.  He was a mean drunk “on the trail after thieves and bandits” and was “arresting officer, judge and jury on the spot.”  The law finally caught up to him and he was arrested and tried “as a murdering, dangerous character without respect for the law and condemned to death.”   As so often happened in those wildwest days, he was drug out of jail and hanged.  It’s probably more fiction than fact.  

There really was a Jack Slade.  His full name was Joseph Alfred “Jack” Slade.  He was born on January 22, 1831 and died on March 10, 1864 after being hanged for “disturbing the peace.” (I guess that was a hanging offense in them days.)   He was depicted as a vicious killer in MARK TWAIN’s “Roughing It” and in 1953, a movie was made about him.  Titled “Jack Slade”, the movie starred MARK STEVENS with DOROTHY MALONE playing Slade’s wife VIRGINIA MARIA DALE. Slade was depicted again in a 1999 movie titled PURGATORY with JOHN DENNIS JOHNSTON playing the gunslinger’s role.

I sure wish we still had old pulp fiction magazines like these.  If no other reason than the terrific artwork.

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Weekly Quote: Cards You Draw

"You can play only with the cards you draw in this life."

 --From Barry Cord's THE MASKED GUN

The Texas Slicks by Peter Dawson - Western Novel Review

A Bantam Book, Copyright 1961, Printing 1975

It’s the end of the Civil War and REECE SCARBROUGH arrives back in Texas to find his father is dead, their homestead in ruins and their land deed claimed by a COLONEL CUSHING. Cushing wears a confederate uniform and acts like he’s still a colonel.  I was never really certain whether Cushing had been a real colonel or just put the uniform on to pretend he had been.  At any rate, by sheer audacity and willpower in the form of some hardcase gunmen, he ends up being the biggest ranch owner in the Texas Panhandle and “the law”.  

He’s even the “banker” and no one gets a loan to start a ranch except through the Colonel.  And of course, Scarbrough needs a loan to finance a trail drive in order to save his ranch.

When Scarbrough visits a local woman to find out what happened to his father, the Colonel surrounds him and his new buddy DIRTY BILL with dozens of armed men.  They shoot the house to pieces and are preparing to blow it up, when the army intervenes.  The army’s Captain has no patience for the Colonel and forces a temporary truce.  That doesn’t end things, of course.  Not by a long shot.

Through the woman’s help, Scarbrough manages to find financial backing from a retired Mexican general and he attempts to put together his cattle drive.  After he’s rounded up his cattle, the Colonel attempts a sabotage.  There’s a desperate and dangerous fight amongst restless cattle and a lit dynamite fuse, and the sabotage fails.  

After a long, arduous trail drive, Scarbrough’s ragtag group of cowboys make it to Abilene to sell their cattle only to be outwitted by Colonel Cushing.   Through a dirty deal and a murder, he’s gotten ownership of the cattle!  Naturally, Scarbrough and his cowboys do find a way to beat the Colonel. And the way Scarbrough’s cowboys band together and get the job done is touching.

Despite the gunplay and killings, this is a funny story.  Most of the levity comes from the cowpoke named Dirty Bill.  He’s sure a character. Full of tall tales and always insisting he’s not sticking around another day.  He’s perpetually “leaving tomorrow” because he doesn’t want to end up on the wrong end of the stick when the Colonel comes after Scarbrough.  

"I'll help you this once," said Dirty.  I must be crazy working for nothing for an idiot but I am so sorry for you, I'll just go along.  You need to be pampered else you'll likely do something crazy and get yourself hurt."

Not to mention that Dirty Bill’s not high on the Colonel’s friend list himself.  Dirty Bill started out on Colonel Cushing’s payroll, challenging Scarbrough to a fight just for the sport of it.  Scarbrough beat him and managed to get a pistol in Colonel Cushing’s back.  Blaming Dirty Bill for the incident, Cushing fires him.  And of course, Dirty Bill feels it’s a pretty good idea to leave the country as soon as possible.  However, Scarborough takes a liking to Dirty Bill so he hires him. And Dirty Bill, despite his many protests, takes a liking to Scarbrough.

There’s really no love interest in this story despite the help Scarbrough receives from the woman.  In addition to bringing the retired Mexican general and Scarbrough together, she also rode out to warn him of the attempted sabotage.  Although there’s a suggestion of possible romance, nothing ever develops.  

The rapport between Dirty Bill and Scarbrough is the real entertainment.  Scarbrough’s following comment about Dirty Bill is typical of the sparring between the two:  “Your maw? I never thought you were borned of woman.  More likely a shaggy old buffalo whelped you.”

I was a bit disappointed that the retired Mexican general didn't play a larger role in the story.  He was shaping up to be an interesting player in the shenanigans.  And the romance I was expecting to bud, didn't really even start to spark.  Overall though, the book is a fun read.  And Dirty Bill being my favorite character.

Back Cover

Cigarettes lit up 7

Cigars lit up 3

Gunplay 3

Fightfights 3

Sabotage 1

Dirty Dealings 1

FAVORITE LINES:

“If your boys don’t take off their guns in three seconds, you’re going to require a new head.”

“It isn’t every day a man can twist the tiger’s tail while somebody else steals its teeth.”

“I don’t look for trouble, it comes with the country.”

“The runts in Texas are as tough as the prime in Kansas.”

“He’s the most ornery, tomfool maverick.”

“Doesn’t cost much here to kill a man.”  (speaking of Abilene KS)

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Weekly Quote: Open Made for Man

"The open was made for man, and it's a man's fault if he doesn't live in it."

--Charles Alden Seltzer's ARIZONA JIM

Cartridge Creek by Richard Meade - Western Novel Review

CARTRIDGE CREEK is an unusual western story.  It’s the story of a wild town needing taming but it’s not a ‘new lawman rides into town and lays down the law’ story.  The fellow that does the taming is a real estate developer.  Yes, you heard right.  A real estate developer.  The lead character is Will Leatherman, but although he’s a partner in the San Antonio Development real estate company, he’s also an ex-trail hardened cowman. He was tired of the roller coaster life of a cowman and wanted to do something to make steady money.  So he took his $20,000 savings and invested in real estate. He and his partner purchase real estate properties, develop them and resell them at a profit.

But now he and his partner are in a bind and have to find a big money-making deal in order to prevent bankruptcy.  So in the beginning of the novel, we find them eyeing a couple of properties across the country that they feel might meet their needs.   His partner is checking into one option, while Leatherman is checking into another.  The option Leatherman is looking into is a town owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad and a nearby ranch owned by a man named Gorman.  The town is called Cartridge Creek and the railroad has put it up for sale dirt cheap.  Gorman is a retiring rancher and is also offering his ranch up for sale at an extremely low price.  Leatherman’s first task is to find out why both properties are so low in price.  

Just as Leatherman arrives in town, he receives a telegram from his partner who informs him that the other deal is no longer an option. So Cartridge Creek and the Gorman Ranch are now their last hope.  Buying a whole town and a large, well-watered ranch in close proximity could be a sweet deal that saves their company--or it could bust them.  And in Leatherman’s case, he could lose his life.

What Leatherman finds out about the town has him ready to throw in his cards and tell his partner it’s time to dissolve the company and salvage what they can, but that ranch...he wants that Gorman ranch.  Unfortunately, the town is wild and unruly, run by a savage ex-Quantrill rider and his rival. Between their feuding and the rustling, the town is not the prosperous family-friendly place it could be and all the ranches round about suffer, including the sweet beauty that is up for sale.

The town is filled with gunmen chased out of New Mexico following the Lincoln County War.  And the gunmen’s loyalties  are divided up between two saloon-owners: Fate Canady and Goldtooth Bob.  These are the two feuding factions.  Partners at one time (they opened the Cattleman Saloon together), they had a falling out and are now sworn enemies.  Goldtooth Bob left the Cattleman Saloon and opened the Silver Dollar Saloon.  Things are heating up and it looks like there will be an all-out war any day.

The Southern Pacific Railroad is tired of the trouble-causing gunmen and would rather sell the town cheap than hire anyone to tame the place.  Leatherman and his partner have approached the railroad to buy the town but want to take a look at it first.  He enters the town incognito; not letting anyone know his real purpose there or his association with the San Antonio Development company.

He takes a room at the boarding house owned by a widow named Bettina Grady who is being courted by the local town booster, a likeable fellow named Tom Brand. Brand is enthusiastic about the town’s prospects and is the major reason the railroad came through and the town has prospered. At least it prospered up until the gunmen moved in.  He’s handy with a gun and befriends Leatherman.  

Leatherman is not entirely sure he wants any part of the trouble due to occur and struggles with his decision to buy or leave.  If he buys, he knows that the wild bunch will have to be cleared out of the town or they will never be able to develop and sell property there.  If he leaves, he and his partner will surely have to declare bankruptcy.  And then there’s that ranch.  It’s such a beautiful ranch with plenty of land and water that he’s entertaining the idea of buying it up for himself rather than for development.  And lastly, there’s Bettina Grady.  He keeps picturing Bettina Grady on that ranch with him.  But of course, there’s an expectation and understanding that Bettina will marry Brand when he asks her.

Leatherman finally makes his decision.  And as you can guess, he decides to gamble at taking a hand at cleaning up the town and buying the ranch for himself.  He sends a telegram to his partner to proceed with the deal.  

As expected, there’s all kinds of gunplay.  The two hard-case town bosses have it out in a fierce Lincoln County-style shootout in the middle of town, followed by drunken revelry.  The whole town is shot up, windows smashed, dead gunmen laying in the street and the losing saloon trashed.   The townsfolk all hole up in their homes until it’s all over.  They stand guard all night with weapons ready to protect their homes and women from the marauders.  One of the townsfolk peeking through covered window describes it as “...like watching hell through a peep hole.”

Following the win by Fate Canady, Leatherman plans a three-pronged attack:  with the townsmen starting a battle in town, he plans to have a group of ex-railroad policemen approach the town from one side and the ranchers approach from the other side.

With the prospects of the town looking rosier and an offer of the town management position, Brady asks Bettina to marry him.  She, however, turns him down.  And although she doesn’t mention Leatherman,  Brady suspects rightly that  he is the reason.  His jealousy turns into an ugly betrayal which not only nearly costs Leatherman his life, but also puts the town in severe jeopardy.

It’s a gripping story with plenty of conflict--Leatherman’s conflicting emotions about the situation; the competition between Leatherman and Brady for Bettina’s affections; the town bosses against each other and the town and then finally, the winner of the feud against Leatherman and his little ‘army’.

This is one I would definitely re-read.

Back Cover

IRONIC FACT: far more cigars are smoked than cigarettes, but the cover drawing shows a cowboy smoking a cigarette.

FAVORITE LINES:

“You stand fast or you’re dead as hell!”

“I don’t care how many trains go through Cartridge Creek; the one I leave on is the one I pick myself.”

“When a man’s time comes to die, he can do it two ways.  Straight up on his hind legs or hunched over like a scared rabbit in a hailstorm.  Me, I ain’t no rabbit.”

Manor Books printing 1975

Original copyright - Doubleday & Company Inc 1973

Cigarettes lit up 1

Cigars lit up 10

Gunplay 4

Fistfights 1

Bushwhacks 3

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Weekly Quote: Cities as Money Mills

"Money mills, cities are. They're hoppers into which human beings put principles and morals and manhood and womanhood and even their souls, at one end, so that dollars will come out at the other."  

From Charles Alden Seltzer's ARIZONA JIM

War Party by Louis L'Amour - Western Novel Review

WAR PARTY has two marks against it right off the bat.  First, it’s not a novel; it’s a collection of short stories and I don’t like short stories.  Second, there is no indication on either the front cover or back cover description that this is a collection of short stories.  I consider that deceptive and unfair.  I was very confused when I arrived at the end of the first story and began reading the second one as if it were the 2nd chapter in a novel.  Bantam, shame on you!  A number of these stories are also written in the first person, which is not a favorite perspective for me either.  Only good mark in its favor: they're all written by Louis L'Amour.

“Trap of Gold” is the story of a father mining for gold in a precarious place where any misstep may bring the whole side of the mountain down on him.  Every moment is a harrowing experience and he keeps telling himself, this will be the last day he attempts any mining.  On the one hand, he wants a stake for his young family.  On the other hand, in any given moment, he could die.

“One for the Pot” is a story about a wife who has decided to leave her husband but changes her mind after an old timer, hired assassin talks her out of it.  The twist is the hired gun was sent to kill her husband.

“War Party” is about a widowed woman with two small children traveling on a wagon train.  The writing is good but just as I’m settling in for a pleasant read, the story ends.  That’s why I don’t like short stories.  And it’s written from the first person perspective.  Best line of the book is in this story:

 “The dogs bark, but the wagons go on their way, and if you were going some place you haven’t time to bother with barking dogs.”

“Get Out of Town” is written from the first person perspective; that of the son of a widowed mother.  He lost his Dad three years back and his mother has put him in charge of hiring a hand to help on the ranch.  Although a number of people warn him against it, he hires a tough hand just out of prison.

“Booty for a Bad Man” is yet again from the first person perspective.  The main character is Tell Sackett who has been paid to carry some gold-panners’ gold out of the mining camp and has come across a lone woman on the trail. This again is a story about a wife abandoning her husband; this time because he’s a soldier and she can’t handle the military life.  And again, after some soul-searching, decides to rejoin her husband. There’s some good tips included for how to thrawt backtrailers.

“The Gift of Cochise” is again about a widowed woman with two small children.  It leads off with her facing off 12 Apaches.  She successfully fights off so many repeated attacks that she earns the respect of the tribe’s chief and he comes to visit her and offers to make her his wife.  She refuses, but he doesn’t forget about her and brings her an unusual gift.

“A Mule for Santa Fe” is another wagon train story.  This time a widowed man and his matchmaking son need one last mule to be able to join the wagon train headed for Santa Fe. He strikes a deal with a woman who wants to join them.  She has the mule.  They have the wagon.  

“Alkali Basin” is a gritty story centered around a stagecoach station.  An unsavory character is the station master who is insistent upon needing a load of dynamite. The stagecoach line wants to cut costs and refuses to send the dynamite.  In an attempt to further cut costs (and possibly fire the station master), the stagecoach line sends someone out on an inspection tour.  He finds out pretty quick why the dynamite is necessary.  And yeah, the old timer keeps his job.

“Man to Match the Hills” is another hired gun assassin story.  In this one, the professional sharpshooter killer pits his wits again his victim.  They both get shot to hell but survive.  The assassin probably wouldn’t have survived if his victim hadn’t nursed him back to health.  Then instead of turning the assassin into the law, the victim lets the guy go simply out of admiration for his cleverness and toughness.  An admiration I don’t understand at all as the hired assassin has killed a number of people in the same way he intended to kill his victim; by shooting him unaware from a distance.  And there’s no indication he won’t continue to kill.  Unfathomable.

“The Defense of the Sentinel” would make a good movie with someone similar to the actor Lee Marvin as the lead character.  The town drunk wakes up to find the town evacuated.  He comes to realize that they evacuated due to an impending attack by the Apaches and decides since it’s too late to leave (and he has no horse), he’d better prepare to defend the town by himself.  He does, admirably, with the help of the best liquor in the town.  The cavalry eventually arrives and is stunned that one lone man held off the Apaches.  A town drunk at that!  It’s a pretty darn funny tale.  My favorite story.

Cigarettes lit up: 5

Cigars lit up: 6

Pipes lit up: 5

Gunplay: 5

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