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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Westerns
"Hey, saddle tramp," said Vernon. "I don't think I like a bum like
you coming in here to drink with us men." Matt turned to face
Guthry, spread his feet shoulder wide with his gun hand thumb still
hooked in his belt, still three fingers from his .44. The men that
stood along the bar, drifted to one side, out of the line of fire.
The room grew deadly quiet. "I've had just about all the crap I'm
going to take from a local loudmouth like you," Matt said. There
was a deadly chill to his voice and Vernon shivered slightly from
the feel of it. All of a sudden, he realized that he might be
biting off a little more than he could chew. Being the braggart
that he was, he couldn't back down from the step he had taken. He
crouched and went for his pistol. Realization that he didn't even
have his gun half way out of leather, and was already looking into
the black hole of a barrel, that looked three inches in diameter,
he froze and in no time at all he felt the sting of salty sweat in
his eyes from the large beads that had popped out on his forehead
and trickled down. He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple moved up and
down but the lump in his throat was just about to choke him and he
couldn't swallow it. He lost control of his bladder and pissed down
his leg, the warm fluid trickling into his left boot. Dawning on
him that he had just pissed in his own whiskey, he sucked in a
mountain of air and said with a high pitched, fine toothed comb,
squeak, "Ohooo, shit." .
This facsimile reprint of the Winter 1940 issue of FRONTIER STORIES
presents "Firebrand" (billed as "A Big Buckskin Novel"), by Walt
Coburn; "Mormon Girl," by George E. Magee; "Hawk of the Plains," by
Bill Cook; "Conquerors West," by Frank H. Richey; "The Powderhorn
Trap," by Ted Fox; and "The Pilgrim Pistolero," by James P. Olsen
-- plus features covering Belle Starr, Wyatt Earp, and more
Little Brooks lives, hunts, and rides with the Plains Indians.
While with them, he witnesses first hand a massacre of a pioneer
woman and her two children. This act spurns hatred and bigotry
between the communities of the White Settlers and Native Americans
that would be felt for over 100 years. Can Little Brooks lay to
rest this social strife with the truth he has witnessed?
When John Stafford, a young man from a wealthy Philadelphia family,
graduates from college in the 1860s, he ventures to the lawless
Northwest to satisfy his basic urge to put himself to the test in
meeting the challenges of a trying environment. Adventure is what
he seeks, and adventure is what he gets. Stafford experiences many
turbulent twists and turns in his life. He marries, Little Dove, a
beautiful Indian woman of Hidatsa descent. He is accepted into her
tribe following his ingenious strategy to defeat his wife's
wrathful Blackfeet suitor. And Stafford accepts a request by
President Abraham Lincoln to form a highly proficient clandestine
fighting force to help the Indians defend themselves against the
widespread tyranny. His skilled force consists of several relatives
and close friends-black as well as white, male and female, along
with a number of Native Americans. Their exploits involve
confrontations with river pirates, whisky peddlers, a tragic
massacre by unauthorized military action an Indian reprisal, and a
marauding gang of cutthroats.
Will Bucklett walked away from the brutality of Marysville prison,
determined to put the atrocities of the senseless war forever in
the past. His one desire was to return home to a loving family and
with brighter expectations. But little did he realize Fate had a
very different idea for his future. As he and his younger brother
bury their mother, they received demoralizing information. Their
father, Salas Bucklett, was being held captive by John Bullard, of
the late Union Army. Who having lost his commission as colonel,
turned into a barbaric terrorist. Major Salas Bucklett of the
Confederacy had previously outwitted Colonel John Bullard of the
Union Army out of a shipment of gold bullion for the South. Bullard
holds Bucklett personally responsible for his disgraceful downfall.
He is accompanied by Evie Plummer, his malicious mistress, whose
morals are lower than a snakes belly and has a heart colder than
the snowcapped Rocky Mountains; she's matched only by the
coldblooded killer and militant deserter, Elkhart, Bullard's
ferocious and vicious second-in-command. Will, his brother, Dain,
and their half-breed friend, Booger Red, trailed the merciless
cutthroats through the Indian Nation, across the high plains of
north Texas, and into the mountain backwoods of Colorado. During
their search, they are ambushed by remnants of Bullard's
desperados, fought off a war party of Cheyenne warrior at a
Purgatory way station; thereby rescuing the lovely Trin Houghton.
Seemingly, fighting off misfortune at every turn in their search to
find and free their father. Persistence and the six-guns can be
convincing tools, but without the courage and tenacity of the
beautiful Juanita, and the resourcefulness of a whorehouse madam
the outcome of Bucklett's Pursuit could have been devastating.
Englishman Jerome Westphal has come to the antebellum Illinois
prairies on a hunting excursion, bagging elk, wolf, bear and
panther. When a legendary white buffalo calf is born, many see it
as a prophetic sign, but Westphal sees only a chance to add to his
trophy list. When Lycurgus (Surge) Sherwood confronts Westphal and
attempts to protect the calf, the Englishman is undeterred and
abducts Sherwood's most trusted friend, his loyal wolf companion
Lupa. Includes the short story Child of the Storm, in which
Lycurgus first encounters the wolf, Lupa.
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