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.

Texas was a huge wide place full of frontiersmen, ranchers, farmers, cowpokes, shiftless no-accounts, shootists, rascals, and politicians -- all of them blended together into a single state. The Rangers -- lawmen, "Texas" Rangers -- were outnumbered a thousand to one, and in one county -- Pecos county -- the law was all but helpless. Until Ranger Vaughn Steel went to Pecos, looking for revenge. . . .

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.

From her ranch home in Montana in the 1920s, Nettie Brady dreamed of joining the rodeo circuit and becoming a star. Defying her mother's wishes and trading her skirts for trousers--and riding the range with her brothers and taking on the occasional half-ton steer in local rodeos--Nettie bucked convention to compete with men in the arena. When family hardship and tragedy threaten her plans, she turns back toward a more traditional life as a ranch woman, but chafes against its restrictions. Then she meets and falls in love with a young neighbor who rides broncs and raises rodeo stock. Can Nettie's rodeo dreams come true if she's also a wife and mother? Based on the life of the author's grandmother, a real Montana cowgirl, this novel takes on the big issues of a woman's place in the west, the crushing difficulties of surviving on a homestead, and the excitement and romance of a young girl aching to follow her dream.

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.

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.

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 - - In the early sixties a trail led from the broad Missouri, swirling yellow and turgid between its green-groved borders, for miles and miles out upon the grassy Nebraska plains, turning westward over the undulating prairie, with its swales and billows and long, winding lines of cottonwoods, to a slow, vast heave of rising ground - Wyoming - where the herds of buffalo grazed and the wolf was lord and the camp-fire of the trapper sent up its curling blue smoke from beside some lonely stream; on and on over the barren lands of eternal monotony, all so gray and wide and solemn and silent under the endless sky; on, ever on, up to the bleak, black hills and into the waterless gullies and through the rocky gorges where the deer browsed and the savage lurked; then slowly rising to the pass between the great bold peaks, and across the windy uplands into Utah, with its verdant valleys, green as emeralds, and its haze-filled canons and wonderful wind-worn cliffs and walls, and its pale salt lakes, veiled in the shadows of stark and lofty rocks, dim, lilac-colored, austere, and isolated; ever onward across Nevada, and ever westward, up from desert to mountain, up into California, where the white streams rushed and roared and the stately pines towered, and seen from craggy heights, deep down, the little blue lakes gleamed like gems; finally sloping to the great descent, where the mountain world ceased and where, out beyond the golden land, asleep and peaceful, stretched the illimitable Pacific, vague and grand beneath the setting sun.

Tom Swan is a young man growing up in the center of the Muscogee Creek Nation in Indian Territory.
Taught by his father the art of handling a pistol he is led to a job of a shotgun guard for a payroll.
As Tom becomes known for his abilities, a veteran U.S. Marshall working out of Fort Smith, takes young Tom under his wing to teach him about the right side of the law. They become a team to be reckoned with in the territory. He and his partner get into big business and big trouble where fast guns aren't always the answer.

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.

U.S. Treasury agent Jack Wood is trying to find the source of counterfeit money appearing in Texas border towns when he suddenly disappears in El Paso. The U.S. deputy treasury director informs a select group of President Ulysses S. Grant's advisors of Wood's disappearance and of Mexico's possible involvement with the counterfeit money. South of El Paso, Mexican mercenaries assemble with orders to destroy the town, seize Dallas, and hold Texas hostage until Grant exchanges the state for thousands of American lives. Grant hesitates. His administration, fraught with scandal, is not trustworthy. With the post-Civil War depression and military downsizing, America can ill-afford another war. With instructions from Washington, a half-dozen Texas Rangers descend on El Paso, only to learn that Wood is being held captive in Mexico. With the Mexican government in revolt, crossing the Rio Grande would be considered an act of war. Ellsworth T. Kincaid, Jack's friend and a dime-novel celebrity, and Stetson, his beautiful female companion, learn of Wood's whereabouts and resolve to rescue him. Crossing into Mexico, the couple penetrates the Mexican stronghold. hundred maniacal cutthroats.

FLYNN is a fundamental American hero in the tradition of Will Kane from High Noon, or Jeremiah Johnson from the film of the same name. He displays the rugged individualism and integrity that made this country great. Preston Flynn goes far beyond the bounds of the ordinary, a perfect specimen of male excellence, as fearless as he is handsome. Orphaned at age six, after witnessing the murder of his parents, he was reared by his uncle, United States Marhal, Freeman Pace, who wore a badge in Laredo, Texas. Preston Flynn followed in his uncle's foot steps, becoming the fastest gun in the State of Texas, earning a coveted reputation and a deputy marshal's badge at age sixteen. His state of concentration became awesome when challenged by fools, outlaws and gunslingers. He could close down mentally to a point that the rise and fall of his breath was no longer discernible, his eyes becoming as expressionless as those of a corpse, displaying the smile he was famous for, an expression that moved no further than his lips, and could make a man's blood run cold. As if he possess a sixth sense, he knew the instant his opponent would draw, his own hand moving in a blur of speed. Many men wanted to challenge him, but few had the nerve. His life was filled with violence, conflict, and frustration. His only weakness was the woman he loved, a woman who was beyond his reach, but remained in his blood like a fever.