"In two western stories, two town marshals are called upon to solve puzzling crimes--the theft of four thousand dollars from a disabled stage and the murder of a stranger whose body disappears before the marshal can have it buried"--

Edson Black was taken away in the Yuma prison wagon seven years ago. When he returned he was a shell of a man whose every outward appearance seemed to have aged at least thirty years. In the place of his thrusting long stride, was a dogged shuffle. Edson Black had shot a man - and no one believed him when he swore he had done so in self-defense. Someone had doctored the evidence to make Edson look guilty - plain and simple. Edson's sons were now grown...

The trouble begins for Sheriff Claude Rainey when a mummified man and his horse is discovered in a desert canyon near Springville, Arizona, both shot in the head. What troubles Rainey is that near the body are five bloodstained packets of $100 bills. The only clue to the identity of the dead man is the shriveled up brand on the horse. It is Sheriff Rainey's hope that the town can keep the money and build a schoolhouse. But then two men arrive within...

Gunnison Butte: George Alden Morgan never knew his father and is abandoned at fourteen by his mother who runs off leaving him eleven silver dollors. George skips town after stealing a horse etc. and meets up with Boone Helm, a survivor in the wilderness. The Drifter: Jared Carson is a man on the move and finds a wrangling job on a small ranch. He gets along well with the ranch owner, and when the owner dies from a gun shot, Jared is left his ranch...