The novel that launched a 25-book series, which is still growing, starts off with a Missouri farm boy traveling west with vengeance in his heart and a Navy Colt in his hand. By his side is the old mountain man, Preacher, who'll teach young Smoke Jensen everything thing he needs to know about fighting like the devil.
Contains two complete novels by American western author William W. Johnstone, including "Pursuit of a Mountain Man" in which a German count pursues mountain man Smoke Jensen and "The First Mountain Man, Blood on the Divide" in which mountain man Preacher takes on the murderous Pardee brothers.
He will Become a Legend... Before the legend of Preacher there was a man, and before the man there was a boy. In this thrilling new novel, William W. Johnstone tells the story of a young man filled with wanderlust and raw courage—who will someday become a hero. ...If He Survives On nothing more than a lark, he leaves his family and begins a journey from Ohio westward. Along the way, he runs up against badlands and bad men, loses his freedom, gains his freedom, and learns the first rule of the frontier: do whatever it takes to survive. Preacher With ruthless enemies after him—both white men and Indians—he’ll head for a place as brutal as it is beautiful—the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. Two years later, he will come back down from the mountaintop with new skills, and a new future as one of the most feared and admired men of his time...a man called Preacher.
The Mountain Man defends his home against lawless killers in these two Western adventures by the New York Times–bestselling author. Trail of the Mountain Man When gold is discovered near the little town of No-Name, Colorado, the citizens are overjoyed. But soon, every gunslick from the Atlantic to the Rockies is beating a path to the gold strike—which happens to be right on Smoke Jensen’s doorstep. Outnumbered a hundred to one, Jensen recruits a small army of the frontier’s ageing but still lethal legends. As these men ride into the violent sunset of their grizzled lives, one thing is certain: There's going to be a lot of blood spilled before anyone walks away with the gold. Revenge of the Mountain Man Smoke Jensen is buying cattle a hundred miles away from his Colorado ranch when he gets devastating news. Drawing two horses from the remuda, he rides off and doesn’t stop until he reaches his wife’s side. She’d been shot three times and lay close to death. Smoke Jensen knows the outlaws who committed this cowardly crime had come for him. And now he’s coming for them . . .
In the bloody aftermath of a wagon ambush, a suspect flees, a woman disappears, and a mountain man searches for truth, justice, and revenge. They call him Preacher . . . JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. STOP BY AND SAY HOWDY. Preacher is no hired killer. When a wagon train is brutally ambushed on the Sante Fe Trail though, he can’t say no to the St. Louis businessman willing to pay him for justice. It’s not the stolen gold that’s convinced Preacher to take the job And it’s not the missing body of one of the wagon train’s crew, a prime suspect who may have plotted the ambush and taken off with the gold. No, it’s the suspect’s lovely fiance, Alita Montez. She believes her boyfriend is innocent—and has run off to find him. Preacher can’t abide the idea of a young woman alone on the Sante Fe Trail. If the Comanche don’t get her, the coyotes will. And Preacher can’t have that. But to save the girl and get the gold, the legendary mountain man will have to forge a path that’s as twisted as a nest of rattlers, face off with trigger-happy kidnappers, backstabbers, and bounty-hunters—and match wits with Styles Mallory, the biggest baddest frontiersman of them all . . . Live Free. Read Hard.
From the USA Today–bestselling author of The Last Mountain Man, an Old West gunfighter closes in on the men who killed his family. William W. Johnstone’s vivid, uncompromising novels stand as violent portraits of the rugged American frontiersman and the forces that forged him. In this powerful novel, Johnstone tells the story of a young Missourian forced by fate and violence into lawlessness—where he sees a chance to right the wrong that shattered his family and his soul… Smoke Jensen is a young man raised on loss and bitterness, nurtured by a mountain man named Preacher. Now, Smoke Jensen, with his, a new black horse and an old grudge, slips over the unmarked border into the turbulent Idaho Territory. Ahead is a town called Bury, built on stolen gold, and run by a band of ruthless men who had a hand in the murder of Smoke's brother in the Civil War. Smoke's father died in pursuit of those killers, but urged his son not to waste his life in vengeance… Swift, powerful, and poetic, Return Of The Mountain Man is an action-packed tale by William W. Johnstone, an American master—and a great chronicler of our harsh and often unforgiving last frontier.
This antiquarian volume contains a detailed and insightful biography of Jim Bridger, written by Stanley Vestal. Vestal is well-known for his books about America. In Jim Bridger he paints a bold and authentic picture of a doughty explorer and of the richness of the American nation when it was still young. Full of colourful anecdote and fascinating insights into the life of Jim Bridger, this text will appeal to those with an interest in this noteworthy explorer, and it would make for a wonderful addition to any personal collection. The chapters of this book include: 'Enterprising Young Man', 'Set Poles for the Mountains', 'Tall Tales', 'The Cheyennes' Bloody Junket', 'Fort Phil Kearney', 'Red Cloud's Defiance', 'The Cheyennes' Warning', 'Shot in the Back', 'Arrow Butchered Out', 'Old Cabe to the Rescue', etcetera. We are republishing this volume now complete with a specially commissioned biography of the author.
Smoke Jensen sat in a cave sure of only two things: he was cold, and it was winter. He had no idea why anyone was after him. He'd soon find out that he'd unwittingly ridden into the middle of the fiercest range war in years. Now Smoke had to either choose sides or return home across the back of a horse.
Legendary national bestselling Western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone return with the blazing new installment in their long-running series featuring Preacher, the First Mountain Man, a pioneering hero who embodies the Johnstone brand – and the American Frontier. A village is destroyed. A vengeance is born. And one man blazes a trail to hell and back to pay the devils their due—in bullets and blood. They call him Preacher… JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE. It starts as a happy reunion between Preacher and his fellow trappers in a peaceful Indian village. But it ends swiftly in death and destruction when a rival tribe attacks the village, slaughters some of Preacher’s Crow and mountain man friends, and carries off the women and children as prisoners. Preacher was off hunting when it happened. Now he’s teaming up with old friend Lorenzo and half-breed Tall Dog, to get the prisoners back—and get revenge. But the road to justice is paved with some very dark omens. And the trail leads to the baddest place on God’s good earth: the bubbling quicksand pits, hot springs, and geysers of the Wyoming wild country known as Colter’s Hell . . . Here—where earthquakes shake the land and no man is safe—Preacher and his friends must wage a three-man war against one of the fiercest tribes this side of the devil’s inferno. And once the shooting starts, it’s going to get a hell of a lot hotter… Oh, and there’s also a question of 100 missing rifles . . .
Smoke Jensen returns to his beloved high country to roust a gang of murderers and thieves who have broken out of prison and taken over the mountain where Jensen's legend was born.