Showing results by author "Max Brand" in All Categories

It was a fool thing to do, but Jack Trainor did it. In order to help keep his sister's husband from going to jail for robbery, Jack agrees to ride out on the getaway horse, drawing suspicions away from his brother-in-law and onto himself. But eluding the posse that follows him in hot pursuit turns out to be much harder than Jack had thought. And he was not prepared to survive the winter in the Canadian wilderness.

This bundle features “The Danger Lover” and the title story, in which 22-year-old Lewis Dikkon has led a sheltered life, working seven days a week as a shoemaker for his taskmaster uncle, Charles Bender. Being inside most of the time, he knows little of the town and its inhabitants. A stranger named Sam Prentiss begins showing up at 8 p.m. every Saturday night to sit in a chair in the shop’s doorway and look across the street for an hour. Their conversations, though limited, begin to set Dikkon’s mind to work and before long he decides he wants to buy a gun.

Tom Dallas has changed his way of living. All the shootings in which he was involved were justified, but there are many who want his scalp which prompts him to make a vow that he will not pack bullets in his .45 for a year. Then a situation develops that can only result in breaking his vow.

When Harry French left home he was just another kid looking to make his way. But when he comes back four years later, things are different. He's different. Or at least the town thinks so. Now nobody looks him in the eye. He isn't just Harry anymore, he's the Shifter, a gunfighter who brings trouble with him wherever he goes. And as hard as Harry tries, he finds that a reputation is a lot harder to put down than a gun.

Dick Rutherford, known simply as the Colonel, had set out into the West to find his fortune, accompanied only by his young companion, Christy Deever. But it looked like the frontier would provide more danger than money...until the Colonel and Christy met Stone-That-Shines, a Mandan warrior who possessed a medicine stone that gave him his name. As soon as the Colonel got a close look at the medicine stone, he knew immediately what made it shine — a rich vein of quartz gold.

The front sight of the gun ripped across his hand. The horse is acting strange, the cabin seems different, Chuck's Uncle Cal has disappeared - something's horribly wrong.

Having been away from Yellow Creek for eight years, Jimmy Geary was happy to see the town again. But there are three men who aren't happy to see Jimmy Geary return, and they conspire to make his stay this time very short.

The state built a dam and the water's rising. Will Pete Harrison get out of prison before it covers the $10,000 dollars he hid?

When two men riding on horseback meet on a trail in the mountains, it proves to be so narrow that neither man's horse can be turned around, or aside, or backwards. So the two now have no choice but to determine who is to be pushed off the trail to certain death.

A back-stabbing murderer meets Happy Jack, the deadliest fighter in the southwest, and tells him about a safe full of cash. It's too well guarded for gunplay, but a dangerous trick might work. Has Happy Jack got the nerve?

Jeremy Dice leaves New York City for the Far West. His career as a tailor had been anything but spectacular. But arriving on the frontier, he witnesses two notorious bank robbers kill each other over the division of their spoils. When the sheriff and a posse arrive, they hail Jeremy as a great hero, believing he killed both men. And then there is the hefty cash reward.

For years, Camden lay awake every night, torn with guilt over the crime he'd committed and waiting for the man who would come to take revenge. Now it's time - he's been found at last - but he won't go down easy.

Recently, a number of Western stories have been discovered among Max Brand’s unpublished works and the first story in this book, "The White Streak", is one of them. Its protagonist is 21-year-old Jimmy Babcock, a former football star, but now a worker at the local bank run by William Parker in the town of Dresser, which has changed from cattle country to one made up of oil and alfalfa fields. When Parker fires Jimmy, all Jimmy can think is how he will hurt Muriel Aiken, his fiancée, who wants to marry.

Ben Flinder's life at an isolated hotel in the mountains is complicated by the arrival of a young woman who is trying to escape, but refuses to reveal from whom. She is befriended by the Gray Shadow, a wild wolf, but not even the wolf can prevent her capture by her pursuers.

Peter Zinn was the "Baddest" man in town. Nobody, including the town's Constable, wanted any part of him. He had somehow forged a life for himself in Sioux Crossing after serving a serious stretch on a prison chain gang.

Black Jack is a Western tale of fate and identity. Raised by a respectable family, the son of a notorious outlaw struggles between his father’s legacy and his adoptive mother’s influence. Will he follow in his outlaw father’s footsteps or carve his own destiny?

Bull Hunter is an unconventional Western hero—a giant of a man with incredible strength but a kind heart. When he crosses paths with famed gunslinger Pete Reeve, the town expects a violent showdown. But Bull's quiet wisdom and raw power might change everything. A unique Western tale of strength, courage, and unexpected heroism.