Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - For some reason the desert scene before Lucy Bostil awoke varying emotions - a sweet gratitude for the fullness of her life there at the Ford, yet a haunting remorse that she could not be wholly content - a vague loneliness of soul - a thrill and a fear for the strangely calling future, glorious, unknown. She longed for something to happen. It might be terrible, so long as it was wonderful. This day, when Lucy had stolen away on a forbidden horse, she was eighteen years old. The thought of her mother, who had died long ago on their way into this wilderness, was the one drop of sadness in her joy. Lucy loved everybody at Bostil's Ford and everybody loved her. She loved all the horses except her father's favorite racer, that perverse devil of a horse, the great Sage King. Lucy was glowing and rapt with love for all she beheld from her lofty perch: the green-and-pink blossoming hamlet beneath her, set between the beauty of the gray sage expanse and the ghastliness of the barren heights; the swift Colorado sullenly thundering below in the abyss; the Indians in their bright colors, riding up the river trail; the eagle poised like a feather on the air, and a beneath him the grazing cattle making black dots on the sage; the deep velvet azure of the sky; the golden lights on the bare peaks and the lilac veils in the far ravines; the silky rustle of a canyon swallow as he shot downward in the sweep of the wind; the fragrance of cedar, the flowers of the spear-pointed mescal; the brooding silence, the beckoning range, the purple distance.

In a country ravaged by the horrors of a brutal civil war, there were countless families torn apart by conflict and violence. This is the story of one ordinary man driven by loss to extraordinary acts and circumstances.

Simon James Sublette lost his entire family during the Civil War. He dreams of coming home and settling into a quiet, peaceful life on his family farm-until those dreams are shattered by a stray bullet. Forever scarred, inside and out, he abandons all he knows and loves. He sets out on a lonely journey, wandering the West in a desperate quest for peace and order. But with each passing day, serenity still eludes him and his heart grows ever heavier. Torn by grief and fighting off hopelessness, he finds beauty in a more poetic way of life. He develops the unusual trait of speaking in rhyme, especially when provoked.

This trait earns him the name "The Rhymer," and he becomes a fearless gunfighter who has no equal when it comes to killing. The Rhymer is a hero for women and children everywhere-and a nightmare straight from hell for those evil men in need of killing.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - I loved outdoor life and hunting. Some way a grizzly bear would come in when I tried to explain forestry to my brother. Hunting grizzlies! he cried. "Why, Ken, father says you've been reading dime novels." Just wait, Hal, till he comes out here. I'll show him that forestry isn't just bear-hunting. My brother Hal and I were camping a few days on the Susquehanna River, and we had divided the time between fishing and tramping. Our camp was on the edge of a forest some eight miles from Harrisburg. The property belonged to our father, and he had promised to drive out to see us. But he did not come that day, and I had to content myself with winning Hal over to my side.

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - It was inevitable that in my efforts to write romantic history of the great West I should at length come to the story of a feud. For long I have steered clear of this rock. But at last I have reached it and must go over it, driven by my desire to chronicle the stirring events of pioneer days. Even to-day it is not possible to travel into the remote corners of the West without seeing the lives of people still affected by a fighting past. How can the truth be told about the pioneering of the West if the struggle, the fight, the blood be left out? It cannot be done. How can a novel be stirring and thrilling, as were those times, unless it be full of sensation? My long labors have been devoted to making stories resemble the times they depict. I have loved the West for its vastness, its contrast, its beauty and color and life, for its wildness and violence, and for the fact that I have seen how it developed great men and women who died unknown and unsung

Relive once more the action packed, shoot 'em up western in the tradition of Zane Grey. Ride with Marshal Woodrow Kinslow as he brings an embittered Colorado landowner to justice. An accident claims the life of a young son of a Colorado rancher, Johnathan Birk. Although, he reluctantly agreed to let homesteaders onto land that he claimed for his own, the death of his son sends him on a vengeful crusade to rid the valley of all the homesteaders. Marshall Woodrow Kinslow is shot at on a high country trail by Ansen Miller, the homesteader who accidentally killed Birk's son. Kinslow listens to his story and decides to take him to see a judge. Birk and his hired guns kill Miller and wound Kinslow. Upon recovery, he goes to a Federal judge, gets some warrants and returns to dispense his own brand of frontier justice. Ride with Marshal Woodrow Kinslow as he brings an embittered Colorado landowner to justice. An accident claims the life of a young son of a Colorado rancher, Johnathan Birk. Although, he reluctantly agreed to let homesteaders onto land that he claimed for his own, the death of his son sends him on a vengeful crusade to rid the valley of all the homesteaders. Marshall Woodrow Kinslow is shot at on a high country trail by Ansen Miller, the homesteader who accidentally killed Birk's son. He mistakes the marshal for one of Birk's men. After the dust settles, Kinslow listens to what Miller has to say and decides to help the man get to a judge so he can his side of the story. Birk and his hired guns catch up to them where they kill Miller and wound Kinslow. Upon recovery, Kinslow goes to a Federal judge, gets some warrants and returns to dispense his own brand of frontier justice.

Life remains hazardous for the pioneers of the Ohio River settlements. Colonel Zane and Jonathan Zane with Lewis Wetzel-the Death Wind-maintain their vigilance and tenuous dominance over Fort Henry and the surrounding wilderness of the great forest. Still the savage Indians of the deep woods remain a constant danger-as do the white renegade bands who live among them. If these threats were not test enough a new danger has arisen and the blockhouse walls may not be enough to protect the pioneers. There is a traitor among them who puts them all at risk. This final volume of Zane Grey's Ohio River Trilogy is a gripping finale to a great series-another thrilling story of life and death on the early American frontier and a classic in the tradition of Drums Along the Mohawk.Volume 1 Betty Zane and volume 2 The Spirit of the Border are available in Leonaur editions now!

Kelly O'Rourke has every reason to grieve-and he almost wants to hate the sun for shining, but it challenges him to live and breathe. He's never cowered from a challenge in his life With jingling spurs and a loaded gun, Kelly rides toward his destiny, blazing trails into the unknown. What begins as a cowboy's lonesome ride becomes an epic tale of self-discovery, inspiration, compassion, forgiveness, personal change, and sweeping societal reformation. Emerald Fire is a precious glimpse into the early Twentieth Century west, an era torn between old-fashioned traditions of frontier America, and the exploding technologies of the new age.

The wind now springing up, the Tonquin got under way, and stood in to seek the channel; but was again deterred by the frightful aspect of the breakers, from venturing within a league. Here she hove to; and Mr. Mumford, the second mate, was despatched with four hands, in the pinnace, to sound across the channel until he should find four fathoms depth. from Chapter VII The storied wildness of the American West captured the imagination of Washington Irving as completely as did the cultured romance of Europe, and the native New Yorker had barely returned home, in 1832, from nearly two decades abroad in England, France, Germany, and Spain when he set out again, this time for the frontier. The West truly was still wild then, to Continental and colonial eyes, and Irving was moved to tell one of the most fascinating adventure tales of the hardy men who explored and mapped it. This is Irvings lost classic, a riveting, rollicking account of John Jacob Astors grand dreams of building a fur-trading empire in the Pacific Northwest, of the expeditions he sent West, and of his ultimateand abysmalfailure. First published in 1836, Astoria has been unfairly maligned as historically inaccurate, but more recent scholarship has proven the books detractors wrong: this is not only an essential work of brilliant literature by one of the great American writers, it is also an important factual chronicle of a foundational era of the American story that should not be forgotten. American author WASHINGTON IRVING (17831859) wrote extensively in the areas of history and historical biography but is best known for his short fiction, including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle.

Joe Manning owned a good-size ranch outside of a small town in Virginia, and he was plowing one day close to his house. He was getting ready to plant a garden patch for the family to use for their livelihood. Three men came along the road. All three had sidearms and one man had a rifle. He shot Joe in the back while Joe was trying to get to the house to get his rifle and defend his family. Then they killed his wife and young daughter, burned the house down around them, and left Joe in his yard bleeding to death. Joe, who cared deeply about people, was the first person in the community to volunteer to help everyone who was in need. Joe, with his wife at one time or another, had entertained in their home all the people in the area. Who could have shot poor Joe Manning in the back twice and destroyed his family and house? What is going on around here? This has always been a nice area of the country. I wonder who is behind all this killing. Why would they kill his wife and daughter, and why would they have burned down his nice house? This is really a mystery. I wonder if Joe will survive. The doctor does not think so. I wonder what the sheriff is doing about it. He does not seem to have a clue. Will anyone else have to die before we find out who the culprits are?

In El-Sombre-Shadow of the Mast, (sequel to El Sombre-Shadow of the Saguaro) the author has attempted to use, as background, the Porforio Diaz regime in the early 1800s in Mexico. Some of the characters in this fictional account are actual historical personages, but the dialogues are completely fictional and not intended to reflect any strengths or weaknesses in the character of these individuals, personally. However, in this fictional account they are used in abstract to portray the usual conflict of democracy and dictatorship, the predator and the prey, the oppressed and the oppressor, with the fate of the innocent hanging in the balance. This conflict of the ages will continue until the second appearance of "The King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords," but in the meantime, when the cause is just, and the time critical, God will always have his valiant "man of the hour" to help mankind cope with the occasion-such a man as El Sombre Except for the Biblical truths contained herein, the opinions expressed in the book are not those of the author, but the opinions of a shadowy and mysterious figure known as El Sombre, code name: Shadow-man, who worked in that era under the auspices of a private enterprise known as High Command Liaison, which in turn, either accepted or rejected assignments, at its own discretion, from a world-wide organization known as High Command, which would later become known as the League of Nations, and would Evolve into what we know today as the United Nations.