Paladin Duos is another fiction that presents the dangers and life- style of bounty hunters. In this book, the bounty hunter takes a partner, a woman who quickly becomes an equal. After several escapades, the ultimate caper takes the heroine into undercover. After a long period on the trail the inevitable occurs. The duo decides to retire and start two business enterprises. The businesses described show another form of entrepreneurship for the times. The book has gunfights, adventure, romance and the intrigue of starting a business in the 1880’s.
The Story........ A wagon train hired US Marshall and a college trained agronomist decide to play the part of a married couple to allow a single female an easier passage to the 1000 miles to Idaho. For weeks they learned how life was on a wagon train as Cole worked as a scout looking for known outlaw gangs. Each night Tess would present the facts about growing vegetables, especially potatoes in Idaho, as Cole saw the end of wagon trains, and got interested in vegetable farming. At the same time, the Duo fell in love. After finally bringing the Barber gang to justice, The Duo made plans to leave the train. Having made friends with the Pulaskis, a family of farmers with four teenage boys, they hired them to operate their farm in Idaho once they arrived. To prepare for their arrival, the Duo took the train and covered the last 500 miles in 24 hours. Once there they bought a ranch with buildings and land. They then purchased workhorses, implements, old manure piles; as they arranged for building a hay, implement, and potato shed. When the Pulaskis arrived in mid-July, they were given the goal of cultivating and fertilizing 400 acres out of harvested hay fields by Oct 1st. By April 1st they planted potatoes, sugar beets, carrots, onions, and turnips. After a summer of maintaining the crops, the fall harvest arrived. Over the years, they expanded the crop acreage and became wealthy, as all their workers prospered and the next generation stayed on.
The Story....... When the next generation of doctors arrived in the early 30s, they spent a few years getting settled in—getting to know the patients, the hospital, the other doctors, and spent time demonstrating their abilities and reliability. Then the polio epidemic was upon them. Fortunately the two lady doctors had volunteered in the Dallas Polio Center with emphasis on the breathing room where polio victims could not maintain their breathing because of paralyzed intercostal and diaphragm muscles. To the rescue, ‘The Iron Lung.’ The time spent explaining what polio was and what it did to the human body was enlightening. More than that, explaining how the ‘iron lung’ worked was revealing for this was a miracle treatment of an otherwise fatal and inhumane disease—no one should die of suffocation. The remainder of the story deals with differing methods the hospital administrators devised to guarantee the hospital’s survival. That included being certified as a regional medical center, adding several new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, and becoming an official medical school outlying training center. In summary, the way medicine evolved and dealt with an incredible epidemic was in itself rewarding. However, how the characters changed throughout the fifty years is well presented to make this story ‘a keeper.’
Sam Balinger was raised on a Texas cattle ranch, but his love of ‘mechanical things’ drove him to work in a gun shop that specialized in fabricating small gun parts. After moving on, he worked as a railroad detective and amassed a small fortune from collecting bounties on the outlaws he brought to justice. Falling in love with a friend from high school, the couple trained for eight months in a Texas applied science college. Returning to Dallas, the Duo bought a metal machine shop, and converted it to a brass cartridge fabrication plant and an ammo loading center. There is plenty of gunfights, jungle warfare, romance, and American ingenuity. The message is “friends can become lovers and build a future.”
Unlike his many books on bounty hunting and lawmen, the main character develops an agency specializing in security, protection and investigations. While working for his customers, he amasses a small fortune. In a short time, he met a woman who became his friend, partner and eventually his lover. Together they built their financial empire. This led to buying a silver/gold mine and opening a retail emporium. It has plenty of shooting, action, comedy, romance and detailed explanations involving underground mining as well as establishing a retail enterprise.
The Story.......... Ray ‘Coop’ Cooper had been a bounty hunter for two years, but now after losing his partner to a medical condition, he considered putting his guns up since he no longer had a backup. In the midst of his last caper, his life was saved by a woman and a dog. After much haggling, the gal convinced him to take her on as his backup. After several successful capers, Ray saw the need to protect this impish gal called Elle—double E double L. Seeing the need for stability, the Duo purchased a gun-shop and spent time promoting it. Coop came to a realistic awareness that bounty hunting was too dangerous for a family man, and the slow pace of a gun-shop was not his style. It was serendipity when a neighbor convinced them to purchase a 2,500-acre woodlot, set up a state-of-the-are sawmill, get some training, and become millionaires in eight years. After a month of training in Houston, they returned with four friends, and proceeded to set up a sawmill. After growing woes and making changes, the team became proficient. In time they added a kiln, then enlarged it, added a planer, and organized the first known sawmill ‘open house’ to promote and sell their quality products.
The Story....... Doctor Brad Kelly, while woolgathering, was riding along the river. He had to make an existential decision as he saw a nude woman trying to stay afloat with a rushing wall of mud on her tail from a likely dam blow-out. Reacting quickly he was able to pull the drowning gal to shore. After spending two days getting acquainted, he told the gal he was a physician and came to town to open up a hospital. After a week of an accelerated romance, the two got married and then headed to a medical center for extra training—Brad in surgery, and Addie in nursing. The Duo then went thru some grueling hoops of study, work, and lack of sleep. Addie excelled and quickly advanced from ward RN to OR nurse, and then to a surgeon’s assistant level. Brad was a natural talent and quickly mastered the surgical techniques and became an attending surgeon prematurely. While in training their hospital was getting built and after making friends with other couples in training they all made their way back to 1905 Texas to set up their practices. With years of growing pains, the golden years were upon the group till they ran into WW1 which took one of their surgeons out of practice for the war’s duration. During the war, realizing that a pandemic was looming, the Duo built a new wing to care for influenza victims. The treatment they gave saved but 4% of the sickest patients. Entering the Roaring 20’s, the hospital and its doctors flourished as three doctors went back into training to learn specialties in orthopedics, urology, and vascular surgery. It was also the time for the Kelly kids and their spouses to be in medical and surgical training. It was after the stock market crash of 1929 that the next generation of Kellys would bring the hospital thru the depression and into the future.
Maximum PC is the magazine that every computer fanatic, PC gamer or content creator must read. Each and every issue is packed with punishing product reviews, insightful and innovative how-to stories and the illuminating technical articles that enthusiasts crave.
Maximum PC is the magazine that every computer fanatic, PC gamer or content creator must read. Each and every issue is packed with punishing product reviews, insightful and innovative how-to stories and the illuminating technical articles that enthusiasts crave.
