Unlikely hero Sammy Gregg has never met a challenge he won't face head on, but he hasn't met outlaw Chester Furness! Born in Brooklyn, Sammy Gregg is small in stature and naive to the ways of the world, yet headstrong and resolute to save enough money to marry Susie Mitchell. Gregg calculates that he needs $15‚000 and figures he can earn enough in six months out west. Although he is a small man who knows nothing of fighting‚ guns‚ or horses‚...

There is a $2,500 reward for the head of the killer wolf, Gray Cloud. When Dave Reagan, considered little better than a half-wit by all who know him, finds the wolf held in his traps, something in the fearless animal's eyes keeps Dave from killing him. Instead, he releases Gray Cloud and carries him on his back to save the wolf from a prairie fire that is threatening them both. Dave brings Gray Cloud home and chains him in a shed that he uses as a...

When Dick Rutherford loses all his money in a horse race, he asks his fiancee to wait for him while he heads into the Far West to seek his fortune.

"Tom Fuller, a scrupulously honest fellow, a person of extraordinary physical strength and owner of a savage horse, Rusty, that he alone was able to tame, is generally regarded as a half-wit. He has been summarily fired from every job he has ever had and even comes to regard himself as a failure. He makes one more try when he is hired on as a blacksmith's assistant by Boston Charlie. Finally here is a job that Tom can perform successfully, and his...

James Geraldi is one of the most legendary thieves in the West. But he is not a typical thief. Many an honest rancher or townsman has become a loyal friend when Geraldi rescues their savings, and many a bandit has been conned or bested by him. Having squared himself with the law, Geraldi is about to marry and settle down when his old friend Larry Burns rides in with a posse in hot pursuit. Without taking time to explain to his bride-to-be, Mary, Geraldi...

Recently, a number of Western stories have been discovered among Max Brand's unpublished works and the first story in this book, The White Streak, is one of them.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 twenty-one-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...

Max Brand (pseudonym of Frederick Faust) was one of the foremost western and pulp authors of his generation. The Smiling Desperado (1924) combines all of the exciting action elements for which he is best known.

"After serving two years in Folsom Prison, Blondy Kitchin lands in Sour Creek Valley where his brute strength gets him a job managing a ranch where he has to deal with an out of control bunch of cowboys, ruthless rustlers, and a savvy Mexican youngster he picked up in town to act as his mozo"--

"When Jingo decides to court a judge's daughter, he finds almost everyone out to stop him--the judge, the hopeful suitor, and the brother of the man he shot over a card game"--

"Many men had set out to capture a magnificent stallion named Parade but none had yet triumphed through the hardships to gain the ultimate prize. Silvertip was a dangerous cowboy who could rip out the heart of a mountain lion with his bare hands and when he hunted Parade, he took only a rope and raw courage. But trailing him, guns at their sides, were two killers who wanted the cowboy as badly as they wanted the horse!"--