Collected here are eleven short stories by Jiggs Sluss. They cover a wide range of subject matter. Within these covers you will find tales of the Old West; stories about men who go off to three wars: World War Two, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War; there's even a story about a private detective whose canny eyes never miss a clue and another about two West Virginia boys who realize their dreams and play in the major league.

HIS RESTLESS HEART BEAT TO A RHYTHM OF ITS OWN- a rhythm that had once been so prevalent in the core of his soul, but had long been lost under the thick layers of routine, expectation, and responsibility created by a quiet, civilized life. Konrad Quintero de Leon, a young American man, having just returned home to New York after his schooling at Oxford University, decides to venture west to rediscover that lost rhythm and peel off the layers that have muffled it for so long.

Set in the 1840s, some of America's most restless years, Konrad begins an endless journey in search of his own "manifest destiny." He embarks on a westward expedition with the famous explorer John C. Fremont and legendary mountain man Kit Carson. He roams the wild Texas frontier with the Texas Rangers and fights in the bloody Battle of Monterrey under the command of General Zachary Taylor. But the life of a restless wanderer is not an easy one, as Konrad discovers when he falls in love with the beautiful and exciting Anastasia Carriere-the fiancee of another man. He is cast into a desperate battle where he must choose between the woman he loves and the adventure that he craves.

An Oregon reservation has suddenly been vacated and Henry Stall, a seasoned ranch owner, didn't get the news in time. He is driven to continue the expansion of his cattle empire in the American northwest, and when he goes to stake his claim, conflict erupts between the old and new guards of ranchers on the open range. Stall combats the restraints of his age, and sets off on a strenuous endeavor to confront Jim Montana, his former employee and the commissioner of the newly vacant property. Heads turn as Stall and Montana mobilize and contend for a share in this territory-and to claim it rightfully theirs. Stall is determined to defend his reputation as a veteran proprietor, while Montana wants to assert his own authority as an emerging official, and their collision sets off a whirlwind of scraps, skirmishes, and showdowns. It falls upon each ranch to wrangle whatever forces it can to carve out a corner of the expanding cattle country before its neighbors. When the law of the land overrides the governing regulations on boundary lines, what emerges is a full-blown range war-and putting down a stake on unclaimed territory becomes more hazardous than ever.

It is 1871 in Idaho Territory, and fourteen-year-old Samuel Chambers is, in many ways, already a man. After journeying west with his father in search of a golden ledge, Samuel nds himself living in the midst of a raucous mining camp lled with gold-hungry Chinese. Gold is scarce, and everyone wants it-including Samuel, whose main goal in life is to get "lucky rich." But Samuel has no idea that the path to achieving his dream is lined with danger like he has never seen before.

Samuel refuses to believe all the naysayers as he embarks on a journey from placer mining to prospecting and from peddling merchandise to running assays. But life in the Wild West is unpredictable, and there are those so intent on nding riches that they will kill anyone who happens to get in their way. Even as danger lurks in the shadows, Samuel cannot keep his eyes o Miss Lilly, a beautiful dancehall lady who intrigues him more than he would like to admit. Despite his attempts to balance a courtship with achieving his dream, nothing prepares Samuel for what is about to happen next.

In this compelling historical tale, a teenager on a coming-of-age journey in remote Idaho faces prejudice and peril as he struggles to carve a living from the land and build a new future.

After many years on the range, a cool fighter who calls himself Idaho rides back to the country where he was raised. Unrecognized by the friends and foes of his childhood, Idaho finds himself in the midst of a roaring scrap between two proud ranchmen and he finds his loyalty split on both sides of the feud. A quick shooter but a quicker thinker, a leader and fighter who never reckons his own safety, Idaho aims to restore justice and peace to the warring ranches. His resolve to win the respect of a father who abandoned him, his desire to protect his greatest benefactor, and his yearning to secure the love of his childhood friend Nancy, force him in the center of the conflict, even as he wrestles with his own inner turmoil. Even as Idaho struggles to determine where to stand in the conflict, he stands up against crookedness and foul play from all sides His shrewd plans for recapturing fence wire and a stolen stream, his hair-trigger action to save lives in tough spots, his fairness and human sympathy it is his courage and calm in hot situations that prove him a hero fit to make the cattle country proud. In the midst of battle blazing with six-guns, rifles, dynamite, fire, and the whole arsenal of hatred and violence, Idaho s divided allegiance may be the only thing that can save the clashing ranchers from each other and from themselves."

In this sequel to "Ride the Ranger Winds, " the Rangers face death as they try to keep order in an increasingly lawless Texas. Three of the Rangers-Boots, Jerry Jack and JoJo-arrive in Laredo to settle a range war. A rancher with precious water is fencing off his land, fueling a war that is about to get bloody. But there are also other problems to face - some more welcome than others. Three Fingers and his Indian followers are burning barns, killing babies, and stealing horses; there are settlers with grudges seeking revenge; and Boots is falling in love with Jane Wyatt, a newspaper writer. The Rangers also face constant temptations to give up their way of life. It will be up to Captain Laughlin, a legendary gunslinger, to figure out whether one of his men may be contributing to the violent disorder. Step into nineteenth-century Texas and join the Rangers as they contend with marauding Indians, traitorous men, and beautiful women in "Ranger Winds: Ride On."

Johnny Montana was tall and dark, and sport a thin, neatly trimmed mustache and he had midnight black eyes. He was particular about his person; he shaved regular and put rosewater in his hair and preferred clean shirts when he could get them...Johnny Montana was the kind of man who made things happen. "You planning on sticking around these parts for the rest of your days?" That question completely changed Katie Swensen's life....She knew in an instant that her answer would be 'no' if Johnny Montana was asking her to go away with him. They left in the late hours of a warm evening, her daddy snoring in the other room. Johnny Montana was the handsomest man she'd ever met. It wasn't until a few days later that she learned he was also a gambler, a road agent and a killer. Henry Dollar was a man that knew horses and knew how to ride them, and he knew guns and how to use them. He'd been tested by gunfire in the sixteen years he'd spent with the D Company of the Texas Rangers. Henry Dollar never shirked his duty, he never backed down, and he never took what wasn't his...but then, he just hadn't been tempted enough, yet. Eli Stagg was a hard, cruel, friendless man with a talent for hunting, tracking and killing. The family of William F. Gray, the late Senator of Arkansas, engaged Stagg to find and kill the man who shot the Senator and left him to die in the dust of the road... Pete Winter, a young lawman, was asked to escort two prisoners across Indian Territory to the court of 'Hanging Judge' Parker... In this rich and complex novel of the Great American Frontier, these characters cross paths and raise arms as they each seek their individual destinies and desires-some will emerge victorious while others will be defeated by harsh climes and hardened men.

This was the climax; the end of a lifetime of bitterness and hate-Rusty Maxwell and Ben Sharp, both grown old, grizzled, and rich; one the owner of a barbed-wire empire, a sea of grass larger than some Eastern states; the other risen to great political power, ruthlessly scheming to break the man with whom he had clashed ever since both had driven their longhorn herds over the trail to Dodge. To cut that empire in two, to bring its over-lord to his knees, had long been Ben Sharp's purpose. And in the South Western Pacific Railroad he found a weapon admirably forged to accomplish this end. But Rusty Maxwell, for all his years, had not forgotten how to fight; nor had Lance Kincaid, the fledgling eagle he had reared, if not sired. Here is the last-stand fight between the valiant Old West, bred to the plains and the saddle, fearless, a six-shooter the tool of its trade; and the raw, dollar-driven progress of the New. Lance Kincaid was certain of his position, the issues clear-cut in his mind, until proud, smiling Valerie Pickett reached the end-of-steel in her father's construction car. In a novel that catches the soul of the windswept plains, Will Ermine has painted a canvas of historic action and drama which far exceeds the dimensions and depth of the usual cowboy story. Its tense, gripping reality strikes a singular note in Western fiction.

When recent Harvard graduate George Tanner returns home to Tahlequah in the Cherokee nation, he finds the town bustling and accommodations scarce. The council is in session and everyone is in town. Captain Go-Ahead Rider, the district sheriff, offers Tanner immediate employment as a deputy. Rider senses trouble as some key issues come up for vote before the Council. The big issue and the most controversial one is whether the railroad should be allowed to come into town. Mix Hail, the swing vote on the issue, suddenly disappears, and Tanner finds himself smack in the middle of big-money politics and his own nation s concerns. As the two lawmen sort through a pile of blackmail, revenge, and bootlegging, they uncover a nasty plot by some of the town s leading citizens. Tanner learns how to be a lawman, while at the same time experiencing the joy of being home, in his own land, with his own people, speaking his own language."