If you have grown weary of SEX and VIOLENCE—If you feel you have overdosed with accounts of TAWDRY LUST, POLITICAL CORRUPTION, and BRUTAL MURDERS—Try a refreshing change. Sip from the cup of comedy, parody, and satire, laced now and then with poetry and song, topped with a dollop of pristine ROMANCE. Yes, gentle reader, you may fortify yourself against the VILE DEGRADATION and CRUEL INJUSTICES of the modern age by sampling from the medicinal tonic of the ADVENTURES OF THE RAMROD RIDER!
With a lot of rustling going on in the area, tensions are high and rumors are flying. Word is going around that some of the larger ranchers have hired a gunman named Wolf Carlton to stop the rustling and protect their cattle. And now a couple of the small ranchers have been found shot to death. Unfortunately for Spencer Prescott, some of the rumors are about him. Some people think that Spencer, not Wolf, is the one killing the competition. Even worse, some folks think Spencer is behind the rustling—and that means trigger-happy Wolf will be looking to put a bullet in his back.
Travis Quinn doesn't have much luck picking friends. First, a friend gets him fired from a ranch. Then he heads down the Powder River, meeting another "friend" who puts in a good word and gets him hired at the Lockhart Ranch. And, if the rumors are true, this friend might just get Travis killed.
JOHN D. NESBITT FOUR - TIME WINNER OF THE SPUR AWARD When Will Dryden is let out of jail, a woman named Mrs. Welles tells him her husband, Al Vetch, is missing and she needs someone to try to find him. Dryden hears there might be a job at a ranch called the Redstone, where a young cowhand was found dead. Dryden meets Ingram, the foreman; Max Aden, a troublemaker; Donovan, the owner; Blanche, who runs the kitchen; and Pearl, an Indian girl who works in the kitchen. Donovan seems to have a proprietary interest in Pearl. Dryden will find out that Donovan has a scheme to grab up land for the oil beneath and that Donovan hired Al Vetch to snuff the young cowhand for getting too close to Pearl and for trying to know too much. Mrs. Welles sends for Dryden. She says she thinks her husband came here to be with Blanche and to do some kind of dirty work. Dryden has a fling with Mrs. Welles. Dryden sees Blanche taking food and water to a hideout in a stone building near the house. He deduces that Al Vetch is inside. Dryden shoots Vetch, Ingram, and Aden. Then he shoots Donovan, who is holding Pearl hostage. Dryden tells Pearl that if she would like to get out of this place, she can go with him. They ride away together.
This is a book of hard-crafted fiction set in the contemporary West, stories about life and love, loss and death, with a few laughs along the way. In selections such as “Cowboy Heart,” “Ice on the Doorstep,” “Chokecherries Are Free,” “Drunk on Christmas Day,” and “Dusk on the Rangeland,” the book captures the spirit of people who tough it out in a world both modern in its problems and timeless in its landscape. This collection has all the fine features that have won praise for John D. Nesbitt’s earlier novels and short stories.
Monte Casteel hadn’t planned on staying long when he rode into the small Wyoming town of Eagle Spring. He was just a ranch hand with no work between seasons. But even before he got into town, someone warned him it might be better for his health if he kept on riding, and Monte hated to be told what to do. It got even tougher to leave when he saw Dora in the street. She was the girl he’d pined after for so long, though she never seemed to care much for him. They may not have been the best reasons to stay around, but they were good enough for Monte. He didn’t know—yet—that he had one great reason to ride out of town fast—a range war was brewing, hired guns were coming in, and before long Monte would find himself caught right in the middle.
Owen Felver was on his way from the Wolf River country to the Laramie Range, hoping to earn summer wages, when he stopped off in Cameron, Wyoming. As a fellow who enjoyed his pleasures, he had a beer in the saloon, but then he got sidetracked sticking up for a girl. Her name turned out to be Jenny Quoin, and one of the bigwigs in town didn’t want to leave her alone. Felver didn’t like to be told to move along, and he and Jenny developed a mutual interest, so he pitched camp near town and took a look into things. Soon enough, he had thugs trying to rough him up. So he looked closer. As he did, he discovered a web of theft, invasion of privacy, blackmail, and eventually murder.
