Hewey Calloway, one of the best-loved cowboys in all of Western fiction, returns in this novel of his younger years as he and his beloved brother Walter leave the family farm in 1889 to find work in the West Texas cow country. The brothers are polar opposites. Walter pines for a sedate life as a farmer, with wife and children; Hewey is a fiddle-footed cowboy content to work at six bits-75 cents-a day on the Pecos River ranch owned by the penny-pinching...

When a cattle drive turns deadly, Smoke and Matt Jensen and Duff MacCallister struggle to cope with bloodthirsty Indians and trigger-happy rustlers as they ride into a brutal blizzard that sorely tests their skills of survival.

"The Civil War is over. The future of the American West is up for grabs. Any man crazy enough to lead a herd of Texas longhorns to the north stands to make a fortune--and make history. That man would be Nelson Story. A bold entrepreneur and miner, he knows a golden opportunity when he sees one. But it won't be easy. Cowboys and bandits got guns, farmers got sick livestock, and the Army's got their own reasons to stop the drive. Even worse, Story's...

After years of driving cattle and wearing a ranger's badge, disaffected Texan Ed Wright retires--intent on drowning his sorrows with whiskey. But widowed rancher Unita Nance has one last job for him, and she won't take no for an answer.

Charlie Deegan, former soldier and Army sharpshooter turned brawler and drunk, winds up in Yuma Territorial Prison. Knowing he can't last the remaining nine years of his sentence, Charlie escapes and heads north hoping to become a cowboy. In the harsh Sonora Desert, he discovers a dead miner's hoard of supplies and gets a new chance at life. Then he befriends a cowboy who helps him get a job on a northbound cattle drive. Starting out as the cook's...

"Zack Keech's business was cattle; railroads were a nuisance, an interloper on the free range and a pain in Zack's saddle-tanned anatomy. So how did this rootin'-tootin' cowboy -- who only wanted the money he figured was due him for a train-triggerd stampede -- find himself working as an undercover agent for two most unusual railroad owners and the notorious Wild Bill Hickok? And furthermore, what was he doing in a situation where not only were a...

Big Jake is determined to make one last drive to Kansas. The only thing is, he doesn't have the cowhands to move that much beef. He drafts his old friend, Chance McCandles, into service, and together, the two aging cowboys put together a crew. The trail to Kansas is fraught with dangers both natural and man made, but when Chance is killed by rustlers, Big Jake has one more task in before him, extract vengeance for his old friend.

"Tom Candy Ponting was no ordinary trail boss. He didn't smoke, chew, cuss, or even carry a gun. Unlike his competitors, he learned how to herd cows on a farm back in England - and how to handle cowboys in bareknuckle prizefights. But his skills and know-how were really put to the test when he accepted a bet he might live to regret: lead a cattle drive from Texas to New York City. Not one to back down on a dare, Ponting assembles the motliest crew...

A chuckwagon cook who's also deadly with a pair of six-shooters, Dewey "Mac" Mackenzie is a man who has no qualms filling men's bellies with food--or lead. Finally cleared of a crime he didn't commit, he's able to enjoy the fruits of his labor on the trail without looking over his shoulder. But even his best served grub can be spoiled by those with evil appetites . . . After traversing California and finding nothing much to his liking, Mac Mackenzie...