Unabridged Start Classics
18 total works
"It was time then for action, and Lefty Joe prepared for the descent into the home of the enemy. Let it not be thought that he approached this moment with a fallen heart, and with a cringing, snaky feeling as a man might be expected to feel when he approached to murder a sleeping foeman. For that was not Lefty's emotion at all. Rather he was overcome by a tremendous happiness. He could have sung with joy at the thought that he was about to rid himself of this pest."
With gusts of wind fanning it roughly, the flame rose fast. Harrigan made other journeys to the rotten stump and wrenched away great chunks of bark and wood. He came back and piled them on the fire. It towered high, the upper tongues twisting among the branches of the tree. They laid Kate Malone between the windbreak and the fire. In a short time her trembling ceased; she turned her face to the blaze and slept.
The Great West, prior to the century's turn, abounded in legend. Stories were told of fabled gunmen whose bullets always magically found their mark, of mighty stallions whose tireless gallop rivaled the speed of the wind, of glorious women whose beauty stunned mind and heart. But nowhere in the vast spread of the mountain-desert country was there a greater legend told than the story of Red Pierre and the phantom gunfighter, McGurk. These two men of the wilderness, so unalike, of widely-differing backgrounds, had in common a single trait: each was unbeatable. Fate brought them clashing together, thunder to thunder, lightning to lightning. They were destined to meet at the crossroads of a long, long trail ... a trail which began in the northern wastes of Canada and led, finally, to a deadly confrontation in the mountains of the Far West.
And maybe I ain't. Sinclair brushed the entire argument away into a thin mist of smoke. "Now, look here, Cold Feet, I'm about to go to sleep, and when I sleep, I sure sleep sound, taking it by and large. They's times when I don't more'n close one eye all night, and they's times when you'd have to pull my eyes open, one by one, to wake me up. Understand? I'm going to sleep the second way tonight. About eight hours of the soundest sleep you ever heard tell of."
The son of a notorious outlaw is adopted into a wealthy, law-abiding family as an infant after his father is killed in an attempted robbery. Will he follow in the footsteps of his outlaw father or will his life be guided by the respectable woman who nurtured him to manhood?
Doc Byrne was too smart for his own good. His overstuffed brain strained his underdeveloped body to the brink of collapse until the only cure for him was to leave big city life and head west. At the edge of the mountains he found problems even bigger than his. In love with the human mind, he encountered men who paid no mind at all. Jerry Strann, for instance. The people of Brownsville accepted Jerry as the wrath of God for all the local sins. They tolerated him only because his brother, Mac, was even more dangerous. As strong and as wild as a mountain bear, Jerry could kill a wolf with his bare hands. Could any man defeat him? Dan Barry might. Quick as a whip, smooth as a breeze, Dan had built up a reputation as tough as the Stranns'. He rode a powerful black horse named Satan and was followed by a dog that looked like a wolf. Called the Night Horseman, Dan seemed something other than a man. Wherever he went, he whistled, and his whistle seemed to penetrate everywhere, as maddening as a guilty conscience. And the guilty conscience of Joe Cumberland heard that whistle too often. There would be plenty of work for Doc Byrne before the Night Horseman rode away.
The Night Horseman was first published in 1920. It is the sequel to Max Brand's The Untamed, also available as a Bison Book.
The Night Horseman was first published in 1920. It is the sequel to Max Brand's The Untamed, also available as a Bison Book.
Hunter was a man who could rip a tree trunk from the ground with his bare hands or tame the wildest stallion with his kind manner. Nobody west of the Pecos would have dared run afoul of the mighty frontiersman. But Pete Reeve didn't have the reputation of a dead shot because he relied on his common sense. Then Bull and Pete crossed paths, and townsfolk from Cheyenne to San Antonio braced for the battle.
"Fiction of the wildest and wooliest kind," said the New York Times when The Untamed was published in 1919. It was the very first western novel by Max Brand, one of the most celebrated and beloved of all western writers.
The mysterious Whistlin' Dan Barry rides a black stallion named Satan, followed by a wolf dog named Black Bart. Dan has his own problems, but they multiply when he encounters Jim Silent and his outlaw gang. Whistlin' Dan has an untamed soul, and his mild eyes take on the yellow glare of a beast when trouble troubles him.
In the black darkness of night, Ronicky Doone overhears the plans of Jack Moon's ruthless gang of cutthroats to kill someone named Hugh Dawn for deserting the gang. While Ronicky doesn't know Hugh Dawn or Jack Moon, he is always ready for adventure. With the aid of his trusty, well-trained horse, Lou, he outraces Moon's gang and successfully warns Hugh Dawn of his danger. Hugh and his gentle daughter, Jerry, accept Ronicky's help and flee with him after Ronicky prophetically says, "I'm one of them with nothing on my hands but a considerable lot of time and an itch for action. Seems to me that there may be some more action before this game's done and over."
He was the toughest cowpuncher in the wild west, the surest shot who ever lived. Where Ronicky Doone went, trouble was sure to follow.
The Seventh Man by Max Brand, tells part of the story of the larger-than-life western character, Dan Barry, known as "Whistling Dan," and his alter-ego companions, Black Bart, the wolf-dog, and Satan, the indomitable black stallion. It's also the story of Kate Cumberland and the incredible five-year-old daughter of Kate and Dan, Joan. We first see Dan as a gentle, caring man with a deep sense of fairness. But then, after six years of a peaceful life in their mountain cabin Dan, more feral than human, sets out to revenge an injustice by killing seven men. Ultimately, it is his devotion to his daughter and Kate's love for the child that brings about the climax of the tale. Warning: don't look for a typical cowboy story here - it's far deeper and stronger than that.
By careful tailoring the broad shoulders of Ben Connor were made to appear fashionably slender, and he disguised the depth of his chest by a stoop whose model slouched along Broadway somewhere between sunset and dawn. He wore, moreover, the first or second pair of spats that had ever stepped off the train at Lukin Junction, a glowing Scotch tweed, and a Panama hat of the color and weave of fine old linen. There was a skeleton at this Feast of Fashion, however, for only tight gloves could make the stubby fingers and broad palms of Connor presentable. At ninety-five in the shade gloves were out of the question, so he held a pair of yellow chamois in one hand and in the other an amber-headed cane. This was the end of the little spur-line, and while the train backed off down the track, staggering across the switch, Ben Connor looked after it, leaning upon his cane just forcibly enough to feel the flection of the wood. This was one of his attitudes of elegance, and when the train was out of sight, and only the puffs of white vapor rolled around the shoulder of the hill, he turned to look the town over, having already given Lukin Junction ample time to look over Ben Connor.
Ronicky Doone (1926) is a hero of the west, respected by the law-abiding citizen and hated by bushwhacking bandits. Bill Gregg is a man in love, not about to be deflected from meeting his lady love for the first time, and willing to stand up to the living legend to reach her. This initial meeting leads to a friendship between the two and they travel east to New York City on the trail of the girl. When they find the girl, Caroline Smith, and she refuses to leave, Ronicky must discover the secret that holds her. They encounter the sinister John Mark and the beautiful Ruth Tolliver and are exposed to the horrors and vices of big city life as they attempt to rescue Caroline and find their way back to the mountain-desert of the west.
He made one mistake in the beginning. He pushed the chestnut too hard the first and second days, so that on the third day he was forced to give the gelding his head and go at a jarring trot most of the day. On the fourth and fifth days, however, he had the reward for his caution. The chestnut's ribs were beginning to show painfully, but he kept doggedly at his work with no sign of faltering. The sixth day brought Andrew Lanning in close view of the lower hills. And on the seventh day he put his fortune boldly to the touch and jogged into the first little town before him.
When John Milman and his daughter, Georgia, saw Shay's hombres squatting on their land, they knew they were licked. They had no guns. Their cattle had no water. Suddenly, the Milmans couldn't believe their ears. A handsome youngster named the Kid was offering help...was promising to tangle with Shay's cutthroats single-handed. John Milman couldn't understand why this gunman wanted to help. When Georgia looked deep into the Kid's eyes her heart leapt and she thought she knew why. But both of them saw that the Kid's guns spelled trouble for Shay, and the captured waters of Dry Creek would run red when this duel of kid against killer exploded!
seventeen book collection by American author, Max Brand. Included in this collection is: Black Jack, Bull Hunter, Gunman's Reckoning, Harrigan, Riders of the Silences, Ronicky Doone, Ronicky Doone's Reward, Ronicky Doone's Treasure, The Garden of Eden, The Hair-Triggered Kid, The Night Horseman, The Rangeland Avenger, The Seventh Man, The Untamed, Trailin'!, Way of the Lawless, Alcatraz.