"Nugget City was a Colorado mining town that made the transition to a ranching community. But the transition wasn't easy and it left a lot of bad blood. A range war had been brewing for a while, and greed, gossip, and rage were threatening to blow the town apart. The last thing the town needed was a spark to set off the tinderbox. Everyone was afraid that was just what they got when a mysterious stranger stepped off the stage - a stranger who wore...

Clay Roland, marshal of Paiute City was on the main street when the young stranger rode into town, looking for him. Soom after, the stranger lay dead on tre floor of Kelly's Bar, shot by Blacky Doane after he refused to turn over a letter he claimed was for the marshal. Confronted by the marshal, Blacky decides to hand over the letter and then leaves town. The letter is from a lawyer in Painted Rock, a distant town in the shadow of Skull Mesa. Clay's...

"In the title story, Murdo Morgan left Paradise Valley sixteen years ago, after his brothers had been killed at the hand of the Turkey Track outfit. One year later, his father died a broken and defeated man. Broad Clancy, owner of the Turkey Track, has remained the controlling force in this area of high desert in Oregon, considering all the land to be open range, including the six-mile strip on both sides of the old wagon road which belongs to Cascade...

"In two Western stories, 'The Courage Builder' and 'Valley of the 99', small time ranchers that the wealthy are trying to force them off their land. Violence erupts when they allow others to use that fear to manipulate them"--Provided by publisher.

Jim Sullivan never expected to land in the middle of a range war when he fell for beautiful Troy Manders. But Troy was out to destroy the swindling no-gooders who had stolen her father's land, and she had gathered a hard-fisted crew of murderous outlaws to help her. With the smell of acrid gunsmoke dogging his every step, Sullivan took a gamble and cast his lot with the desperadoes. The odds stacked against him, he would need a keen eye and a fast...

"Twelve traditional Western stories set in Oregon and Colorado about lawmen, gunfighters, cattlemen, sheepmen, businessmen, lawyers, teachers, stubborn old men and independent women"--

""When you live the sort of life I do -- the life of a hired gun -- you start to figure you can handle any tough hand who comes along. But the tough hand I had to drill right between the eyes just happened to be a Flynn. And even though it was self-defense, there's no way his pa and the rest of the clan wouldn't come after me. In a wild race across the frozen prairie, their first bullet killed my horse and their second caught me right in the thigh....

Transportation in central Oregon is still by stagecoach and freight wagon, but there's a movement afoot for a people's railroad. Now competing railroad barons James J. Hill and Edward H. Harriman both set about building a line there. Their front men, Lee Dawes and Mike Quinn, have always competed for rights-of-way - and women. Attracted to Deborah Haig, Dawes is nettled to see her in an intimate meeting with Quinn. But there's something else about...