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 - - What subtle strange message had come to her out of the West? Carley Burch laid the letter in her lap and gazed dreamily through the window. It was a day typical of early April in New York, rather cold and gray, with steely sunlight. Spring breathed in the air, but the women passing along Fifty-seventh Street wore furs and wraps. She heard the distant clatter of an L train and then the hum of a motor car. A hurdy-gurdy jarred into the interval of quiet. Glenn has been gone over a year, she mused, "three months over a year-and of all his strange letters this seems the strangest yet." She lived again, for the thousandth time, the last moments she had spent with him. It had been on New-Year's Eve, 1918. They had called upon friends who were staying at the McAlpin, in a suite on the twenty-first floor overlooking Broadway. And when the last quarter hour of that eventful and tragic year began slowly to pass with the low swell of whistles and bells, Carley's friends had discreetly left her alone with her lover, at the open window, to watch and hear the old year out, the new year in. Glenn Kilbourne had returned from France early that fall, shell-shocked and gassed, and otherwise incapacitated for service in the army-a wreck of his former sterling self and in many unaccountable ways a stranger to her. Cold, silent, haunted by something, he had made her miserable with his aloofness. But as the bells began to ring out the year that had been his ruin Glenn had drawn her close, tenderly, passionately, and yet strangely, too.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

Cowboy Knight Salvation is a tale of choices and directions about one of the last American generals, Alan Cally, who has to face the reality that all he has done for war against the individualist was wrong. He had a love of the Old West from movies he had only seen from childhood, but that would all change when he and his AI robotic horse, Ranger, explore the New West. They encounter a frontier teaming with giant creatures from the past. His love for adventure would lead him to a man who would help him change everything he stood for and humble his very soul. This is a story with action, adventure, tragedy, and most of all, hope. Like the New West, he would learn to become a new man.

Sin was a profitable commodity in a mining town like Motherlode. Lust made money for the madam, wrath and avarice created targets for the manhunter, and the newspaperman was greedy for stories. 'He had no right to take you against your will.' When a prostitute is raped during the robbery of the Motherlode stage, Jonah Durrell seems to be the only man who cares. The handsome manhunter can never resist a damsel in distress. He is determined to get justice for Miss Jenny's girl, and recruits Robinson, an enthusiastic newspaperman who witnessed the attack. The women are not meek and passive though. They are willing to take matters, and guns, into their own hands to survive in a tough world. Together, with Durrell and Robinson, they begin to uncover the layers of lust, avarice and envy in town, bringing down the wrath of their enemies. Can the women of sin get the justice they deserve?

Falling for someone who doesn't want to get married is soon to be the least of his concerns. While his brothers and their new wives search for who shot him, Wyatt Hunt is temporarily bedridden and completely miserable. Somehow Molly Garner's limited skills have made her the most qualified in their circle to care for Wyatt. But by the time he's healed, she's fed up with him and the whole ungrateful family. For even worse than his grumpiness were the few unguarded moments when he pulled at her heartstrings, and she has been long determined to never repeat her mother's mistakes. When alternate plans of finding her own independent life fall through, Molly volunteers to work for the Pinkertons and help investigate nearby ranch owner Oliver Hawkins. She signs on to be his housekeeper, hoping to find clues to prove his nefarious, and possibly murderous, past. Wyatt refuses to let her risk it alone and offers to act as Hawkins's new foreman. But when another Pinkerton agent gets shot, they realize Hawkins isn't the only danger. The Hunt brothers will have to band together to face all the troubles of life and love that suddenly surround them.

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.

Before he brilliantly traversed the gritty landscapes of underworld Detroit and Miami, Elmore Leonard wrote breathtaking adventures set in America's nineteenth-century western frontier--elevating a popular genre with his now-trademark twisting plots, rich characterizations, and scalpel-sharp dialogue.

No author has ever written more evocatively of the dusty, gutsy heyday of the American West than Elmore Leonard. This complete collection of his thirty-one Western tales will thrill lovers of the genre, his die-hard fans, and everyone in between. From his very first story ever published--"The Trail of the Apache"--through five decades of classic Western tales, "The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard" demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that has made Leonard one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time.

LIZ is a story based on actual events. Four lives caught up in the turbulent times of the 1860's. The struggle to survive, and the desires of a nineteen-year-old girl coming of age, leaves her vulnerable. Lust, weakness, strength, treachery, happiness, disappointment, and despair alternate as she becomes the central figure in the lives of three lovers. As war clouds gather in the United States, threatening to divide that nation, a gold rush in Canada brings three men together while at the same time tearing them apart. In turn, they face the hazards and cruelty of sealing off Alaska, violent storms at sea, dangerous cutthroats, early ranching, and the hardships and horrors of the Civil War. The story takes place sailing the West Coast of America, ranching in California, across Panama, up the East Coast of America, the Civil War in Virginia and the hazards of a post Civil War journey by stagecoach across the United States.

Part of Tom Cutters instructions to his men:

"We will have something original on this drive. Out artist, Artie Cohn, has painted a map all the way to Abilene on the chuck wagon canvas. He'll be painting our progress each day all the way to our destination as well as incidents that may happen along the way."

On the other side of the wagon he has painted another map for our trip back home. Check with them to know where we are, how far we've gone and how far we have to go."

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid have given up robbing banks and trains and are now ranch owners, and are waiting to hear from the Governor of Wyoming about a possible pardon. While in Buffalo, Wyoming, to buy supplies, they have an unfortunate encounter with Luther Greeley, an outlaw from a rival gang based at Hole-in-the-Wall, during which Sundance is badly wounded. Butch takes him to the nearby home of a friend to recover. As a worried Butch watches over his injured partner, he thinks back to their first meeting and to the events that led up to their partnership. It all began in the town of Green River, Wyoming, and a chance meeting between them when they were young, then using their names Leroy and Lonzo....

The book attempts to give homage to a largely forgotten or even unknown chapter in American History; the African-American Law Man in the old west. There are plenty of true stories about these Americans but mostly on obscure web pages and the untouched books in the local library. The Main Character is a fictional collection of several law man that our history has over looked like Bass Reeves from the Oklahoma Territory and before him Willie Kennard from Colorado. As dedicated as Bat Masterson or Wyatt Earp and as quick on the draw as William Butler Hickock but never caught the eye of the dime store novelist; until now.

Harried Denver businesswoman, Jesse Harless, has had enough of the long hours and stress of her non-advancing job. Even her best friend and their forays into the glittering nightlife of the city cannot pull her out of this funk. A chance meeting with an old friend propels her into the mysteries of the Native American culture, where she is given an odd, yet special gift--an eight-week-old wolf pup she calls Shadow.

Despite her friends' misgivings, Jesse gives up everything and moves to Montana where she hopes to give her wolf the freedom and life he deserves. Jesse enlists a company of new friends, including an angry young Native American and an ex-LA cop, who learn to love and do their best to protect Jesse, Shadow and his orphaned, misfit pack.

Through her union with this cast of characters, Jesse is able to bond with the Ancients' reverence for Mother Earth and all the Creator's children, which leads to her own freedom as well.

Patrick William Graham Jr. was destined to be small of stature, but that didn't mean he was short on courage. He grew up with a Cherokee tribe and became blood brother to the chief's son, Leaping Wolf. One of Pat's first toys was a hand-carved wooden pistol; when his draw was faster than his father's, he was given a working gun.

When tragedy strikes, leaving Pat's father dead and his mother remarried to a man Pat despises, he leaves his tribal home. Out in the world, his small frame makes him an easy target for bullies, predators, and petty men with something to prove. After he kills a man who was riding him for being small, Pat's life changes in ways he can't control. He sells his skills as a gunman. In Mexico, he protects a silver mine from banditos and then helps them to improve their operation.

One fateful day, however, on a job rustling cattle, he finds God and a better way to live.

Pat is soon welcomed as the youngest Arizona Territorial Ranger, and he puts his skills and talents to the Lord's work. He prevents war with the Indians seven times. But his life isn't all heroics and escapades. Along the way, he also finds a bride, buys a ranch, and works with a family named Earp.

Inspired by the stories told to him by his Texas rancher father, songs, and classic Western tales, A Stranger Came to Town is Nolan Fondren's love song to a long-lost time and place.

"ILONA'S MOUNTAIN" is a woman's historical adventure novel circa 1820-1850. What follows is an engrossing action-packed tale of a young woman's struggles in an era where violence and conflict exists in a male-dominated society. The heroine is a destitute young girl, born 1820 into a sharecropper's family. Adopted by the famous Colonel Wade Hampton of America's Revolutionary War, Ilona Christine Rutledge grows up on the Carolina showplace, Hampton Plantation. Over the years the young Ilona matures as an educated southern lady and an astute businesswoman.

Using plantation slaves, the heroine farms a sizeable garden, opens highway vegetables stand, and wisely shares her profits with the slaves.

By her middle teens, she finances the re-floating of a sunken riverboat from the waters of Savannah, Georgia. She hires a New Orleans marine engineer to raise the derelict, refit it, and fashion it into an opulent riverboat casino. Unexpectedly, heavily armed enemies strike.

Within years, "That Rutledge intruder," now known as The River Queen, acquires a fleet of elegant stern-wheeler gambling boats. Accumulating immense wealth, she helps many people, unwittingly including those who secretly plot to kill her.

The grisly showdown comes when the duelist, Randolph Holcombe, pursues, traps, then challenges "Gray Hair," leader of the murder conspiracy, inside a snow-covered mountain cave. In spite of a surprising and horrible confrontation, the actual identity of "Gray Hair" remains hidden. Only suspicions point to why he hates The River Queen so much.

Gold Fever is written in the first person as the author wanted his readers to see the story of Everett "Easy" Edwards through his eyes as he experiences his trials in life. The book starts with an action packed situation on the first page where his partner, Bill Shields and he are under siege by Apache Indians. The story moves quickly in a rapid action packed adventure. Easy travels on to the goldfields. Along the way he meets two miners that become life-long partners in this adventures. The three meet two young people, Al and Karen Harris and the six establish a lucrative gold mine. During this time Easy also meets a powerful, unscrupulous mine owner, Clay Brett, who befriends him then turns on him and hounds him throughout the book. Easy falls in love with Brett's step-daughter, Myra, and elopes with her. This only adds fuel to the fire of Brett's hatred for Easy. Easy is ambushed and is rescued by a fifteen year old orphan girl, Lara Adams, whose parents and brother were killed by Brett's men. She becomes Easy's unlikely partner and is featured in every adventure of Easy's life. The reader will love this girl as she is clever and unique. Their many adventures and narrow escapes will keep the reader on edge throughout the book.

A friendship germinates between two unlikely men on a quiet road in New Mexico. When Jack Collins invites Cameron Yellow Fox Arnfinn, tagged as Timco, to ride in his truck-along with a stray pooch they've dubbed Midnight-they can't predict what the future holds.

Timco, following a hitch as a Code Talker with the Marines in World War II, has been traveling extensively, homing in on a return to the reservation. Half Navajo Indian, he's a man of many contradictions and numerous talents. Jack, an enigma, mourns the loss of his wife as he journeys the country. The two take refuge in the small New Mexico community of Estancia al Cabo.

Timco and Jack endear themselves to this community and join the archaeological efforts of Doc who has been assigned to excavate a long-lost pueblo. Timco is delegated as the intermediary between the hired indigenous Navajo people and the whites.

When winter closes down the digs, he remains at the ranch. After all, the ghosts that linger in the ancient pueblo surely are his ancient relatives. He's imbued with a sense of dedication to the task.

A dying man, Peter Barker asks Sheriff Quigley to deliver a message to his family. Quigley does so, only to find himself the target of range baron Huston McRae, who controls everything in Gila County, including the local sheriff, and doesn't want an outsider nosing around in his affairs. And above all, he doesn't want Quigley helping Noreen Barker, Peter Barker's widow. When McRae's attempted intimidation of Quigley fails, he orders him killed. Quigley sends for his deputy, Murray Fishbourne, and together they take on the local sheriff and the gunslingers McRae sends after them. But as the fighting intensifies, can Quigley and Murray survive?