A SWEEPING HISTORICAL
ADVENTURE BY THE WORLD'S BESTSELLING
FRONTIER STORYTELLER.

They came West inspired by the boldest American dream.  Pioneers whose hands and hearts shaped the proud destiny of a nation.  Seven men and thirteen women and children - strangers who shed their blood to build a community out of the Wyoming wilderness.  And towering above them all was Bendigo Shafter, a giant of a man whose love and courage were the equal of the mighty land.

LOUIS L'AMOUR

Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 165 million of his books in print around the world.

LAWMAN

The marshal's name was Borden Chantry.  Young, lean, rugged, he'd buried a few men in this two-bit cowtown - every single one killed in a fair fight.  Then, one dark, grim day a mysterious gunman shot a man in cold blood.  Five grisly murders later, Chantry was faced with the roughest assignment of his life - find that savage, trigger-happy troubleshooter before he blasts apart every man in town... one by bloody one.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 120 million of his books in print around the world.

THE BROKEN GUN

Begin with the massacre of 27 innocent men.  Follow it with two brutal murders almost 90 years later.  Add two curious, hard-bitten verterans of guerrilla fighting, and a beautiful, terror-stricken girl.

Mix with a pack of vicious killers, who would have been more than a match for the most notorious gunmen of the old West, and you have Louis L'Amour blistering novel of action and adventure in the new West.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 140 million of his books in print around the world.

GOLD FEVER

Catlow heard the legend of the Mexican gold.  Catlow hijacked the mule train carrying it.  Catlow knew the U.S. law and the entire Mexican Army was at his backside.  Catlow didn't give a damn.  He knew all the answers except how to get through Seri Indian country rich and alive.

CATLOW

LOUIS L'AMOUR

Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 160 million of his books in print around the world.

IT WAS NO WORK FOR A WOMAN.

That's what they told Mary Breydon when she came to manage a rundown stagecoach station on the Cherokee Trail.  But Mary had no choice.  Her fine Virginia home burned to ashes in the Civil War and her husband was brutally shot down on the way to Colorado.  She needed to make a new beginning for herself and her young daughter on the raw frontier.  Isolated in an untamed land, their life at the station was achingly hard and they faced the constant danger of attacks by outlaws and marauding Indians.  Yet with the support of a spirited Irish woman, a fearless orphan boy and most of all, the mysterious gunman Temple Boone, Mary found the courage to shape her station into a vital stop on America's westward journey.  Until the vicious murderer whose bloody rampages had stained her past suddenly stalked Mary Breydon to Cherokee Station.

Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier. There are now over 160 million of his books in print around the world.

THEY CAME TO THE COMSTOCK...

It was just a godforsaken mountainside but no place on earth was richer in silver. For a bustling, enterprising America, this was the great bonanza. The dreamers, the restless, the builders, the vultures—they were lured by the glittering promise of instant riches and survived the brutal hardships of a mining camp to raise a legendary boom town. But some sought more than wealth. Val Trevallion, a loner haunted by a violent past. Grita Redaway, a radiantly beautiful actress driven by an unfulfilled need. Two fiercely independent spirits, together they rose above the chal-lenges of the Comstock to stake a bold claim on the future. Louis L'Amour is the bestselling storyteller of the Ameri-can past with over 160 million copies of his books in print. Now, bringing to life all the sweep and excitement of the world's greatest silver strike, Louis L'Amour has written his biggest novel of the West.

CROSSFIRE TRAIL

Rafe Caradec was a man who always rode at the ready, hardened by a life spent among ruthless men who played for the highest stakes.  The only thing Rafe held sacred was his word - and now he had sworn to a dying man that he would save his Long Valley ranch for his wife and daughter, Ann.  But Ann thought Rafe was moving in for his own crooked gain, and played right into the deadly hands of the greedy ranchers plotting to destroy her.  Then Rafe figured a way to save Ann and the land.  It would be dangerous - but that was the only way Rafe Caradec knew.

LOUIS L'AMOUR

Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier. There are now over 160 million of his books in print around the world.

LIGHTNING
WITH A GUN

Gaylord Riley set up a cattle range bordering Dark Canyon... a tough stretch of country.  Rustlers used it to drive stolen cattle across the mountains, north to south.  Desperate men skulked in it when they were in trouble.  It was a road for bandit raids.  It was a bad stretch of country.

DARK CANYON

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 160 million of his books in print around the world.

I'M TYREL SACKETT AND
I WAS BORN TO TROUBLE...

I killed a man in Tennessee, fair and square, but me and my brother Orrin hit the trail west.  Those were the years when decent men and women went in fear of Indians, rustlers and killers, but we made the West a land where folks could raise their young 'uns.  Orrin brought law and order from Santa Fe to Montana, and I backed him all the way.  Because, till the day I hung it up, I was the fastest gun alive!

THE DAYBREAKERS

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now more than 120 million of his books in print around the world.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
AMERICA'S STORYTELLER

Dear Reader,

I've derived a lot of pleasure in the past decade in personally preparing collections of my short stories for my publisher, Bantam Books, to issue in paperback.

Now, without my permission, a publisher I do not approve of is trying to publish some of my stories that appear in this collection in a book bearing this same title.  I am outraged by their completely unauthorized edition of my stories, and I have put together this collection so my fans will not be shortchanged.

The only authorized edition of Dutchman's Flat is this one, published by Bantam.  There are more of my personally selected and edited stories in this authorized edition than in any unauthorized version.  And, as I've done for Bowdrie's Law, Buckskin Run, and my other books of short stories, I've also added new introductory notes of interest and written a special forward that puts these stories in an historical and personal context.

BANTAM BOOKS IS THE ONLY PUBLISHER AUTHORIZED TO ISSUE MY SHORT STORIES IN BOOK FORM.  ONLY ACCEPT MY SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS PUBLISHED BY BANTAM.

I am confident that my loyal fans will want to read only the authorized Bantam editions of my stories.

Sincerely,

Louis L'Amour

"IF HE MOVES, SHOOT HIM."

Matt Coburn had cleaned up tough towns before.  He knew what to do and how to do it.  Above all, he knew who to kill and when.  But this time the odds were stacked against him.  He was facing every kind of gunman, knife artist, drygulcher and tin horn there was.  And he was alone.  Now he was sure of only one thing - the gutters would run with blood before law came to Confusion.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women that settled the American frontier.  There are now nearly 225 million of his books in print around the world.

BEST OF THE WEST

A veteran trail driver, who has survived thundering stampedes and Comanche raids, discovers there's nothing so dangerous as courting a beautiful woman....  A brutally beaten homesteader crawls off to die - only to stumble upon an ancient talisman that restores his will to live....  This treasure trove of newly discovered stories captures the grit, grandeur, and glory of the men and women who wielded pistol and plow, Bible and branding iron to tame a wild country.  A mysterious preacher rides into town to deliver a warning that leads to a surprising revelation....  And in the full-length novella Rustler Roundup, the hardworking citizens of a law-abiding town are pushed to the edge as rumors of rustlers in their midst threaten to turn neighbor against neighbor.  Each of these unforgettable tales bears the master's touch - comic twists, stark realism, crackling suspense - all the elements that have made Louis L'Amour an American legend.

LOUIS L'AMOUR, America's favorite storyteller, has thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are more than 260 million copies of his books in print around the world.

LIVE BY THE  SWORD, DIE BY THE SWORD

---

The British killed his father and destroyed his home.  Ever since, Irish-born Tatton Chantry has been driven by one goal: to reclaim what is rightfully his.  Yet now, his perilous journey from the Old World has left him marooned on the coast of North Carolina.  Here, Chantry happens upon a group of shipwrecked Spanish profiteers.  Suddenly he has a one-in-a-million chance at winning a treasure beyond his wildest dreams: a fortune in gold and the heart of a brave Peruvian beauty.  But first Tatton Chantry has to survive a band of pirates, savage Indians, and an expert swordsman who may be the most dangerous foe of all.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are more than 225 million copies of his books in print around the world.

Fallon
would bet on
anything!

He lived footloose and fancy-free.  He could work the saloons and dance halls all the way from Texas to the last frontier - and he did.

When he met the girl, he started playing his cards close to his vest.  This girl was one thing he didn't want to gamble with.  She was something he damn well had to have.

Fallon
A FAST-ACTION NOVEL
OF THE OLD WEST BY THE GREATEST
WESTERN WRITER OF THEM ALL -
LOUIS L'AMOUR

THE FERGUSON RIFLE
Ronan Chantry took his prized Ferguson rifle and went west to die.  He found himself a civilized man in the rugged wilderness.  He joined up with some rough trappers and traveled on - until they met up with hostile Indians, a beautiful girl looking for a 200-year-old treasure, and her treacherous uncle.  They were all fighting for their lives.  And then Chantry found out how brave he really was...

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 160 million of his books in print around the world.

HERE LIES SAM BARLOW
COWARD-THIEF-MURDERER
KILLED BY CULLEN BAKER


I burned those words on a rough board, dug the grave deep and left them for Barlow to see.  Then I started practicing with my Colt ten hours a day, till it lept into my hand and found the target like a living thing.  I was ready for Barlow now.  I had invented the deadliest form of hand-to-hand fighting the world had ever seen - the first fast draw.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 175 million of his books in print around the world.

FLINT

He came out of the Malpais, the terrible volcanic badlands where nothing can live, riding a giant red stallion no other man could put a hand to.  His boots were polished, his speech was gentle, but his guns were sooth as silk.  He shot first and talked later.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now more than 225 million of his books in print around the world.

"SASKETTS DON'T DIE EASY."

Galloway was thinking of Flagan.  Somewhere in those mountains, without weapons, in a rugged country where the only humans he found were apt to be enemies, he would have to fight for his life alone.  Galloway knew that Flagan must do to survive because he knew what he would do.  And there was no easy way.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 110 million of his books in print around the world.

TWO RAW GIANTS
Clay Bell had out-fought renegades, rustlers and wild animals to build his own spread out of an untamed wilderness.  Jud Devitt was rich, powerful, ruthless.  He recognized only one law - take what you can, when you can.  Devitt wanted Bell's timber and meant to have it.  But he didn't know Bell would fight, that it would be a blood battle to the death - winner take all.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 140 million of his books in print around the world.

RAFTER CROSSING
was a town building for an explosion when Mike Shevlin rode in.

The cattlemen swore they'd close down the mines because they were poisoning the range water.  The miners were stealing the high-grade ore that rightfully belonged to Laine Tennison.

Laine hired Mike Shevlin to get her ore back.  He had an old debt he wanted to pay back... but with lead, not gold!

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 160 million of his books in print around the world.

HIGH LONESOME

Considine finally made his big strike, hit the Obaro bank with his outlaws and had a clear run to the border.  Then they cut the trail of a beautiful girl, a girl with Apaches closing in on her.  Suddenly, the border was forgotten.  Their chances were slim but Considine and his men thundered to the girl's rescue and together they mounted one magnificent stand atop High Lonesome.

LOIUS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 180 million of his books in print around the world.

STREET FIGHTER
IN KANSAS

Young Tom Shanaghy was hardheaded and hard-muscled.  Back in New York he could handle anything from a blacksmith's anvil to knuckle-and-skull street brawling.  Now Shanaghy was a stranger in a small Kansas town, a town desperate for a marshal.  He pinned on the badge, but facing down a vengeful trail driver and a murderous gang of gold thieves would take more iron than even Shanaghy could pack into two fists. 

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier. There are now over 160 million of his books in print around the world.

JUBAL SACKETT
Wilderness explorer Jubal Sackett was the son of Barnabas Sackett, the first of that name to come to the New World.  Jubal feared no man, nor backed away from any challenge.  His fierce determination to blaze new trails took him across the vast, savage North American continent where no white man had been before.  Living and fighting among the Indian tribes, Jubal Sackett forged a legend as a powerful medicine man they called "Ni'kwana, master of mysteries."  And with Itchakomi, the proud Natchez princess, he walked the path of courage that future Sacketts would follow.

THE KEY-LOCK MAN

The posse was aiming to string Matt Keelock up from the highest tree.  But Keelock was smarter and faster than a coyote.  He should have been running scared, but he was playing Injun with them... circling back and then coming up behind... harassing them... shooting up their canteens like clay pigeons.  If they'd had any sense at all, they'd have turned back before they even started - because when Keelock ran out of funny business, there would be nobody left to laugh except the vultures.


LOUIS L'AMOUR
America's favorite storyteller, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now nearly 225 million of his books in print around the world.

Harbin was the gunslinger.  All he wanted was the gold.  Badger was just a little weasel, waiting to see where the chips fell before he made his move.  Nora was an orphan, searching for news of her lost parents.  But Kid Rodelo?  He was the man of mystery.  Who was he?  What did he want?  Ahead of them was fifty miles of desert hell.  Behind them was a band of savage, bounty-hunting Yaquis.  Only Rodelo could save them.  But would he?

KID RODELO

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 140 million of his books in print around the world.

LANDO
Sackett got to Texas with a well-oiled hogleg, a racing mule that didn't look worth its salt and a damn good idea of the whereabouts of buried gold across the border in Mexico.  In Mexico he had had luck.  His party had to run for it, and when Lando stood rear guard they pulled out and left him.  Six years in a Mexican prison put muscles in his arms, fire in his heart and pure recklessness in his head.  When he caught up with the men who betrayed him, it made no difference that he didn't have a gun.

LOUIS
LAMOUR

The SACKETS

They are the unforgettable pioneer family created by master storyteller Louis L'Amour to bring to vivid life the spirit and adventure of the American frontier.  The Sacketts, men and women who challenged the untamed wilderness with their dreams and their courage.  From generation to generation they pushed ever westward with a restless, wandering urge, a kinship with the free, wild places and a fierce independence.  The Sacketts always stood tall and, true to their strong family pride, they would unite to take on any and all challenges, no matter how overwhelming the odds.  Each Sackett novel is a complete, exciting historical adv.enture, and read as a group, Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts form an epic story of the building of our mighty nation, a saga cherished by millions of readers around the world for more than a quarter century.

"FOR SHEER ADVENTURE
L'AMOUR IS IN TOP FORM."
- KIRKUS REVIEWS

LAST OF
THE BREED

Here is the kind of authentically detailed epic novel that has become Louis L'Amour's hallmark.  It is the compelling story of U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, a man born out of time.  When his experimental aircraft is forced down in Russia and he escapes a Soviet prison camp, he must call upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness.  Only one route lies open to Mack: the path of his ancestors, overland to the Bering Strait and across the sea to America.  But in pursuit is a legendary tracker, the Yakut native Alekhin, who knows every square foot of the icy frontier - and who knows that to trap his quarry he must think like a Sioux.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
With over 180 million copies of his books in print worldwide, Louis L'Amour is America's favorite storyteller.  His phenomenal bestsellers include Jubal Sackett and The Haunted Mesa.

LAST STAND
AT PAPAGO WELLS

Logan Cates knew the many ways the Arizona desert could kill a man.  He had ridden the sunblasted dunes, tracked the Apache over barren lava beds, sheltered in the dry washes of this forbidding land.  Above all, he knew a man needed water to survive.  Cates rode to Papago Wells a few miles ahead of an Apache war party led by the vicious Churupati.  There he met a dozen desert wanderers whom chance had led to the only water between Yuma and hell.  There they came under siege by the Indians.  And there they would make their stand - with little hope of living beyond the next day and only a hard man named Logan Cates to show them how to conquer their true enemy: fear.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now almost 225 million of his books in print around the world.

Tell Sackett had been lured into the Apache's mountain stronghold by the icy beauty of his brother's wife.  He didn't go alone.  John J. Battles, Spanish Murphy and the half-breed Tampico rode beside him.  Each was driven by his past to test his speed and cunning against an enemy who could smell a white man a mile away - and then shoot his eyes out at a dead gallop.  It was a contest few men would enter - and fewer still could hope to win.

THE LONELY MEN

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Now, with nearly 95 million copies of his books in print worldwide, he is the "bestselling and most highly rated Western writer in the country today."
- The New York Times

LONELY ON THE MOUNTAIN
The Sackett brothers didn't know what brand of trouble Cousin Logan was in, but he needed beef cattle badly.  So with Tell Sackett ramrodding, Tyrel, Orrin, and Cap Rountree rode north - pushing 1100 head across the wide Dakota plains toward the mountains of far western Canada.  Past Sioux, past Logan's treacherous enemies, through uncharted trails, the Sacketts drove on.  Because when you step on the toes of one Sackett, they all come running.

LOUIS
LAMOUR
The Sacketts
They are the unforgettable pioneer family created by master storyteller Louis L'Amour to bring to vivid life the spirit and adventure of the American frontier.  The Sacketts, men and women who challenged the untamed wilderness with their dreams and their courage.  From generation to generation they pushed ever westward with a restless, wandering urge, a kinship with the free, wild places, and a fierce independence.  The Sacketts always stood tall, and true to their strong family pride, they would unite to take on any and all challenges, no matter how overwhelming the odds.  Each Sackett novel is a complete, exciting historical adventure, and read as a group, Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts form an epic story of the building of our mighty nation, a saga cherished by millions of readers around the world for more than a quarter century.

LONG RIDE HOME

No one brings to life the Old West like Louis L'Amour.  Collected here for the first time, these vintage frontier stories introduce you to lawmen and loners, ranchers and renegades, gunslingers, cardsharps, bank robbers - even a "he school-ma'rm."  In these pages L'Amour brings to life such classic characters as the Cactus Kid, Tensleep Mooney, One-Eared Tim, and the gunfighter Kim Sartain.  These are frontier tales as only L'Amour can tell them - stories that surprise like the sharp crack of a Winchester and move like the lonely howl of the wind across an empty plain on the long ride home.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are more than 200 million of his books in print around the world.

THE LEGEND OF LONIGAN

In his newest collection of frontier short fiction, Louis L'Amour celebrates the tough breed of men who work the cattle drives.  Men like Lonigan, whose quick draw and hard fists were as respected as his reputation for doing right by the people who did right by him.  Lonigan didn't just ride herd for Tom Gurney's Circle G, he loved it as if it were his own.  But now that Tom was dead his daughter Ruth was braving the hard cattle drive into Dodge, and it didn't look like she would make it - thanks to the conniving outlaw band who thought she was easy pickins'.  But they hadn't counted on Lonigan, who would show them no fear and no mercy.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now almost 200 million of his books n pr nt around the world.

Tell Sackett was packing thirty pounds of gold and no worries - until he got to the ferry at the Colorado.  Trouble found him there.  It looked like a black-eyed woman, pretty as a young filly, and a hundred times more set to buck any man.  It looked like a gang of hardcases, with other folks' gold.  And trouble looked like the other side of the rive - the hottest, driest, most brutal desert on the continent.

MOJAVE CROSSING
One of the 16 books in the magnificent Sacket series

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 120 million of his books in print around the world.

CUT 'N' SHOOT
Holed up in a cabin in the Idaho hills, the mysterious man who called himself Trent wasn't looking: for trouble.  It came looking for him.  A trigger-happy kid named Cub Hale emptied his gun into an unarmed man.  Then he came swaggering after Trent.  The girl who ran the gambling hall tried to get him to hightail it.  But Trent wasn't buying.  Even in that forsaken back country, he knew when a man had to speak with his shooting iron.

THE MOUNTAIN
VALLEY WAR

LOUIS L'AMOUR
writes stories that take off like a bullet.  Now, with nearly 75 million copies of his books in print worldwide, he is "the most prolific, bestselling and most highly rated Western writer in the country today.."
- The New York Times

IT WAS ALMOST
TOO MUCH FOR EVEN A
SACKETT TO HANDLE!

He could outride and outshoot any five men, but he was a fool for a lady in distress.  The posse was hot on his trail for murder when he took time out to rescue Sylvie from a gang of desperados.  It wasn't till she'd bushwhacked him with a shotgun, and tried to poison him that he realized she was up to no good.  And no sooner had he shot his way out of her clutches than he met Penelope.  After he'd heard her sad story, he should have cut and run, but somehow a Sackett never seems to learn the easy way.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 110 million of his books in print around the world.

LOUIS L'AMOUR'S
FIGHTERS IN THE SKY

They're freelance pilots and full-time troubleshooters for democracy. They're men like Steven Cowan, Mike Thorne, and Turk Madden who face danger every day of their lives and fight like tigers for what they believe in.  With the world on the brink of war, they're on the front lines, wherever there's action.

From the dangerous South Seas islands, to steaming South American jungles, to the other islands of Japan, you'll find these men ready to fight the enemies of freedom - in a battle to the death.

NIGHT OVER THE SOLOMONS

For the first time ever in paperback, here is a brand-new collection of exciting stories of adventure by Louis L'Amour, America's favorite storyteller.  With more than 175 million copies of his books in print worldwide, L'Amour is the author of such recent #1 bestsellers as The Walking Drum, Jubal Sackett, and Last of the Breed.

Night Over the Solomons contains "Night Over the Solomons" • "Mission to Siberut" • "Pirates With Wings" • "Tailwind to Tibet" • "The Goose Flies South" • "Wings Over Khabarovsk"

THE DUDE
He came from the East to buy cattle, to the untamed land where there was no law but a man's courage.  He came to get his steers to the railroad, not to kill.  He was a peaceable man, but when French Williams and the local outlaws mistook him for a victim, there was lead to pay.

NORTH TO THE RAILS

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 100 million of his books in print around the world.

A BROTHER'S VENGEANCE
When Owen Chantry returned to his brother's ranch for a visit, he found his brother had been savagely murdered and two dirt farmers - Ether and son - were now building a life on his land.  Chantry didn't mind the squatters much, but Mac Mowatt's gang was another matter.  Mowatt believed a fortune was buried somewhere on the Chantry place.  One man had died for it already, and Mowatt told Chantry and the squatters they'd he next.  That forced Chantry to make the only decision a brother could: to make the cold-blooded killers pay... or die trying.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now more than 225 million copies of his books in print around the world.

PICK UP A GUN, AND STAY

"I'm just passin' through," the rider said when they asked him his name.  And from then on, in the high country around Parrott City, he was called just that: Mr. Passin' Through, a man who rode a blue roan with a skull and crossbones brand and didn't know how to keep to himself.  And he wouldn't keep to himself.  Because something about a parched and dusty ranch appealed to him, and something about a woman's hair made him think of not being alone, and something about a scheme to grab the land away from its rightful owner made him want to stay and fight.  And so he stayed and fought.  Because liars, killers, and cheaters were coming after Passin' Through with murder in their eyes, and a gun had a way of making him feel at home.

PASSIN' THROUGH

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are more than 225 million copies of his books in print around the world.

ROUGH
ROAD TO MANHOOD
Young Kearney McRaven had already traveled some rough trails, but tracking his father's killer was a man-size task.  Especially since he himself was being hunted by mysteri-ous gunmen in long, black coats.  From the desert to the Spanish Peaks, they followed his every move until Kearney stopped running and started shooting.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
with the three stars playing the Sackett brothers in THE SACKETTS, a major NBC-TV drama.  L'Amour, with over 80 million copies of his books in print worldwide, is "the most prolific, bestselling and most highly rated Western writer in the country today."
- The New York Times

ONE MAN STAND

He was educated by life and bound to the land he loved.  Then beautiful Angelina Foley came up from Texas with three thousand head of cattle, an outfit of hardcase gunfighters, and an old Spanish grant to Radigan's land.  Radigan reasoned with them, stood up to them, and when they tried to drive him from his home he fought back, determined to make his enemies taste the bitterness of their greed, their stupidity... and their blood.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now more than 225 million copies of his books in print around the world.

RIDE THE
DARK TRAIL
Logan Sackett had run the wild trails since near to when he was born... picked up a few horses here and yon and some cattle too... rode the back trails with the bunch... he'd been around.  But he'd never bothered womenfolk and he got mighty angry with those who did - especially when the victim was an untamable lady named Emily Talon - horn a Sackett!

LOUIS
L'AMOUR
The
SACKETTS
They are the unforgettable pioneer family created by master storyteller Louis L'Amour to bring to vivid life the spirit and adventure of the American frontier.  The Sacketts, men and women who challenged the untamed wilderness with their dreams and their courage.  From generation to generation they pushed ever westward with a restless, wandering urge, a kinship with the free, wild places, and a fierce independence.  The Sacketts always stood tall, and true to their strong family pride, they would unite to take on any and all challenges, no matter how overwhelming the odds.  Each Sackett novel is a complete, exciting historical adventure, and read as a group, Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts form an epic story of the building of our mighty nation, a saga cherished by millions of readers around the world for more than a quarter century.

RIDE THE RIVER
No matter that Echo Sackett was young, and a woman, and had never been far from the valley.  She was still a Sackett - sharp and smart and a better hunter than most of the men she knew.  Like her bold ancestors, Echo couldn't ignore a challenge.  A sure hand with a horse, a dead shot with a rifle, and fast with her wits, Echo traveled to the mountains of Tennessee, coming up against ruthless killers who'd stop at nothing to cheat her of her inheritance.  There she'd prove once and for all that she could ride the river with the best.

LOUIS
L'AMOUR
The
SACKETTS

They are the unforgettable pioneer family created by master storyteller Louis L'Amour to bring to vivid life the spirit and adventure of the American frontier.  The Sacketts, men and women who challenged the untamed wilderness with their dreams and their courage.  From generation to generation they pushed ever westward with a restless, wandering urge, a kinship with the free, wild places and a fierce independence.  The Sacketts always stood tall and, true to their strong family pride, they would unite to take on any and all challenges, no matter how overwhelming the odds.  Each Sackett novel is a complete, exciting historical adventure, and read as a group, Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts form an epic story of the building of our mighty nation, a saga cherished by millions of readers around the world for more than a quarter century.

A WORD FROM
LOUIS L'AMOUR

"Almost four decades ago, when my fiction was being published exclusively in 'pulp' western magazines, I wrote a number of novel-length stories, known back then as 'magazine novels.'  In creating them, I lived with my characters so closely that their lives were still as much a part of me as I was of them long after the issues in which they appeared went out of print.  Proud as I was of how I presented the characters and their adventures in the pages of the magazines, I wanted to tell the reader more about my people and why they did what they did.  So, over the years, I revised and expanded these magazine works into novels that I published as full-length paperbacks under different titles.

"These particular early magazine versions of my books have long been a source of considerable speculation and curiosity among many of my readers, so much so of late, that now I've decided to bring four of my 'magazine novels' back into print in this latest volume of my short fiction."

"I hope you enjoy them."

THE RIDER OF THE RUBY HILLS CONTAINS
• "Showdown Trail," the original version of the novel
THE TALL STRANGER
• "A Man Called Trent," the first telling of
THE MOUNTAIN VALLEY WAR
• "The Trail to Peach Meadow Canyon," which became
SON OF A WANTED MAN
• "The Rider of the Ruby Hills," which was expanded to
WHERE THE LONG GRASS BLOWS

LOUIS L'AMOUR
AMERICA'S STORYTELLER

Dear Reader,

I've taken great pride over the years in personally selecting and editing collections of my short stories for my publisher, Bantam Books, to issue in paperback.  Now, without my permission, a publisher, with whom I am in no way associated, is attempting to sell a book with this same title containing some of my stories that appear in this collection.  I am outraged by their completely unauthorized edition of my stories, and I have put together this collection so my fans will not be shortchanged.

The only authorized edition of Riding for the Brand is this one, published by Bantam.  Not only are there more of my personally chosen stories in this authorized edition than in any unauthorized version with this title, but, as with Bowdrie's Law, Buckskin Run, and my six other Bantam books of short stories, I've also added new introductory notes of interest and written a special foreword that puts this work in personal and historical perspective.

BANTAM BOOKS IS THE ONLY PUBLISHER AUTHORIZED TO ISSUE MY SHORT STORIES IN BOOK FORM.  ONLY ACCEPT MY SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS PUBLISHED BY BANTAM.

I am confident that my loyal fans will want to read only the authorized Bantam editions of my stories.

Sincerely,

Louis L'Amour

HOPALONG CASSIDY RIDES AGAIN!

In this first of four classic frontier novels, Louis L'Amour adds his own special brand to the life and adventures of one of America's favorite fictional cowboys, Hopalong Cassidy.  In The Rustlers of West Fork, the quick-thinking, fast-shooting cowpuncher heads west to deliver a fortune in bank notes to his old friend, Dick Jordan.  When he arrives at the Circle J, he discovers that the rancher and his daughter, Pam, are being held prisoner by a desperate band of outlaws led by the ruthless Avery Sparr and his partner Arnold Soper.

Even if Hopalong Cassidy can free Jordan and Pam, he will have to lead them across rough and untamed Apache country, stalked by the outlaws who have vowed to gun him down.  But Hopalong is no stranger to trouble, and before his guns - or his temper - cool, he's determined to round up Span and his gang and bring the outlaws to justice... dead or alive!  This classic tale of pursuit and survival is vintage L'Amour and adds new life and luster to the legend of Hopalong Cassidy.

LOUIS L'AMOUR, America's favorite storyteller, has thrilled a nation by bringing to life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier. There are now more than 225 million of his books in print around the world.

"I'M TELL SACKETT!"

"Oldest brother to Orrin Sackett, he lawmaker, and Tye Sackett, the Mora gunfighter...  I had to kill a man in Texas so I've drifted.  Came upon a vein of pure gold in high, lonesome country.  All I wanted was enough to buy me a ranch... but gold has ways of its own with men!"

SACKETT
One of the 14 books in the magnificaent Sackett series.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 110 million of his books in print around the world.

THE SACKETT BRAND
Forty gunslingers from the Lazy A have got Tell Sackett corned under the Mogollon Rim.  They're fixing to hang him if they can capture him alive, fill him extra full of lead f they can't.  But the Sacketts don't cotton to that kind of treatment.  Hunt one Sackett and you hunt them all.  So they're riding in from all over - mountain Sacketts, outlaws, cattlemen, bankers and the rest.  They'll fight with Tell on this one - if they can get there before Tell kills all forty hardcases himself.

LOUIS L'AMOUR
The Sacketts
They are the unforgettable pioneer family created by master storyteller Louis L'Amour to bring to vivid life the the spirit and adventure of the American frontier.  The Sacketts, men and women who challenged the untamed wildness with their dreams and their courage.  From generation to generation they pushed ever westward with a restless, wandering urge, a kinship with the free, wild places and a fierce independence.  The Sacketts always stodd tall and, true to their string family pride, they would unite to take on any and all challenges, no matter how overwhelming the odds.  Each Sackett novel is a complete, exciting historical adventure, and read as a group, Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts form an epic story of the building of our mighty nation, a saga cherished by millions of readers around the world for more than a quarter century.

SACKETT'S
LAND
Son of a feared fighting man, Barnabas Sackett inherited his father's fiery temper, sense of justice and warrior skills  Declared an outlaw in his native England Barnahas set his daring sights on the opportunities of the New World.  The ruthless piracy of the open seas and the unknown dangers of the savage American wilderness lay before him.  And so did the thrill of discovery an the chance to establish a bold new future if he survived.

LOUIS
L'AMOUR
The
SACKETTS


They are the unforgettable pioneer family created by master storyteller Louis L'Amour to bring to vivid life the spirit and adventure of the American frontier.  The Sacketts, men and women who challenged the untamed wilderness with their dreams and their courage.  From generation to generation they pushed ever westward with a restless, wandering urge, a kinship with the free, wild places and a fierce independence.  The Sacketts always stood tall and, true to their strong family pride, they would unite to take on any and all challenges, no matter how overwhelming the odds.  Each Sackett novel is a complete, exciting historical adventure, and read as a group, Louis L'Amour's The Sacketts form an epic story of the building of our mighty nation, a saga cherished by millions of readers around the world for more than a quarter century.

LONE MAN

He rode wild country with wilder men.  He was a loner who owned nothing but his horse and saddle - and his guns.  He was a man willing to gamble his life to get the woman he wanted...  He was Shalako.

SHALAKO

LOUIS L'AMOUR

Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now over 140 million of his books in print around the world.