A crazy miner and a stubborn woman meet—then all hell breaks loose. Maybe they'll marry. It depends on who reaches the shotgun first.

Black Mask, the greatest American detective magazine of all time, is back with another issue featuring five all-new stories, plus vintage hard-boiled classics from the pulp era of the 1930s-40s. And it includes a never-before published cover by James Lunnon, painted for Black Mask in 1940.

Buzz Leary has been in the Klondike, working in the timber business around Copper River, but now he comes back to Skidway. Leary still owns the lush stands of white pine that several others have long coveted, and no one is more his enemy than Mary Dardis who blames Leary for having killed her father.

The morning air rocked with the explosions of a half-dozen guns. Ten cutthroats rode into Alkali Coulee to ambush the steamboat Great West. They ignored an old Indian sitting by the dock. That wasn't smart.

Hand-sled Riley is being pursued by Granden, a wanted man. Granden is wanted on the American side, which is why Riley is fleeing in that direction. But Granden has no intention of letting Riley escape. He has a gun, and Riley does not. He wants a bullet to settle the matter before they leave the Canadian wilderness.