To avenge his murdered friend, a young fur trapper will risk everythingAfter the Sioux attacked, Sad Sam found young Brian McCulloch in the ruins of the wagon train, surrounded by the bodies of his slaughtered family. He took the frightened child under his wing, and for years they were inseparable—hunting, wandering, and trapping beavers for fur in the frigid Montana wilderness. While Sad Sam and Brian are returning south, their cart piled high with valuable pelts, ...

Caught in a land war, two gunmen are forced to shoot their way outA bloated dead cow bakes in the hot desert sun. This grisly omen is the first creature Trinity and Billy Raglan have seen since they stepped onto the deserted Bar-D Ranch, a desolate stretch of country that their boss has purchased for reasons known only to him. Sent to clear out the property after the former owner refuses to vacate, they detect no signs of life—until a sniper's bullet breaks the sile...

Framed for murder, an honest man rides over the desert to clear his nameJake Shockley has his feet up in the tavern when his twin comes through the door. The stranger isn't his brother, but may as well be, and Jake sees opportunity there—a chance to erase years of warrants and wanted posters with a single quick kill. He lures his lookalike into the alley, knocks him out, and waits until a rider comes along. Jake shoots his twin through the heart and skips town, leav...

In a deserted western town, two drifters fight to stay aliveThe place is called Hangtown, and it's as dead as a man with a noose cinched 'round his neck. Josh Banks and Wage Carson rode here in search of work, but they found the settlement dried up and blown away—the silver mine empty and the population gone with it. Josh wants to take what supplies they can and move on out into the desert, but Wage has a grander idea. The town has been abandoned, and that makes it ...

In a cutthroat western town, a newcomer is tricked into helping an outlawAfter three days in a stagecoach, Chad Dempster is weary, dusty, and sore. On his first step into Las Palmas, he slips, and crashes face first into the dirt. His clumsiness earns him a nickname—Tanglefoot—and the sympathy of Glen Walker, one of the most powerful men in town. Walker buys Chad lunch, finds him a place to stay, and gets him a job driving the stagecoach. He seems like the best frie...

A natural tracker does all he can to help a woman escape the Dakota TerritoryWhen the harsh winters of the Black Hills snuffed out his father's life, Miles Donovan was left with no inheritance but knowledge of every trail, creek, and ridge in the Dakota territories. He put his scouting instincts to work for the US cavalry, helping them chase Sioux raiding parties across terrain where few white men dared to tread. It was in that unforgiving country that he learned to...

In a lonely army outpost, a group of misfits waits for rescue—or deathA few minutes before midnight in the barren New Mexico desert, Big John leads a prisoner to his doom. Although only nineteen years old, the boy is a killer, and will be hanged as soon as they reach the next town. But between these men and civilization lies an expanse of hell.Not far from the outpost, they find a family slaughtered by the Comanche. The outpost should mean safety, but the arm...

Along a lonely stretch of desert, a bandit robs for revengeThe Chicolote stagecoach is just outside of town when a highwayman tricks the driver into stopping. With a long-barreled hunting rifle, he forces the passengers to hand over their valuables and lifts nearly $30,000 in paper money from the coach before riding into the night. He hides his haul in a cave, keeping only a pair of diamond earrings to give to his beloved. Then he sends the sheriff a note with direc...

An elderly rancher is shot to death over a dispute about a hidden treasureJ. Pierce Buchanan has spent a lifetime tearing a living out of the open range—battling droughts and wildfire, Indians and bandits. At ninety, he has accumulated a fortune in gold pieces—some $50,000—but he will never get the chance to spend it. In the still of the night, someone sneaks into the old man's bedroom and tortures him at gunpoint in a fearsome attempt to lay his hands on the treasu...

When a banker's daughter is kidnapped, it takes an evil deed to get her backTwo horsemen appear on the eastern edge of Crater, a dusty Western town as dry and barren as the sinkhole that gave it its name. The riders disappear around the back of the bank, where they find an unlocked door—and a flour sack stuffed with cash. The ransom was embezzled by the banker himself, who is ready to risk jail, to throw away his reputation, to give his life if it means getting his ...

While searching for his cousin, a cowpuncher uncovers a dark family secretAfter a hard drive from Texas, cowhand Tracy Keyes finds himself in Abilene, Kansas, with money to burn. A telegram waits from his mother, begging him to go to Wyoming to learn how his cousin, Joe Savage, died. Tracy buys a heavy coat, saddles up, and ventures into the frigid winter to search for truth on frozen ground. The first thing he learns is that Joe Savage was a killer, pursued by lawm...

After a hard cattle drive, a trio of cowboys takes on a vicious killerJerry, Sandy, and Turk relax in the Durant saloon while sipping whiskey, showing off their new clothes, and waiting for night to fall. They have just finished a long drive, and decide to dream up ways to spend their money when one of their trail mates staggers into the saloon, a knife in his back. He gasps out a partial warning, then drops dead on the floor.Whip marks crisscross the dead ma...