Spanish Peaks Library District

They came West, risking it all to dig the gold, ride the range, conquer the greedy and carve out a legacy of freedom. Louis L'Amour tells of the real heroes of the frontier, the survivors, for whom hanging tough was as natural as drawing breath.

Lawman, manhunter, peacemaker - it takes a hard breed of man to survive as a Texas Ranger, but Chick Bowdrie stands head and shoulders above the rest. The rough trails are his home, from the Big Thicket to the Pecos to the border. He's dried by the desert sun and wind, scarred and toughened by uncounted gunbattles, and when you look into his black eyes it's like looking down the barrels of two .44s with their hammers drawn back. He rides in the name...

Ponga Jim Mayo, the American master of the Semiramis, a tramp freighter, explores the area around Indonesia, encountering pirates, spies, drug peddlers, and gunrunners.

This is an eminently readable and enjoyable collection of 10 previously unpublished short stories by the late L'Amour. In"The Ghost Fighter," Bat McGowan is the world heavyweight boxing champion. He is also a drinker, womanizer, and carouser. His managers have a chance to make some money off the title by staging matches in small towns, and decide to employ look-alike Barney Malone as a stand-in. As the exhibitions progress, Malone proves that having...

Shanghaied into forced labor on a merchant vessel, Charles Rodney dies aboard ship from repeated beatings -- but not before deeding part of his ranch to Rafe Caradec, who he hopes will protect his family.

Rafe Caradec - gambler, wanderer, soldier of fortune - was as hard a man as the battlefields and waterfronts of Latin America could fashion, but he was as good as his word. As Charles Rodney lay dying in a dank ship's fo'c'sle. Rafe swore to make sure that Rodney's Wyoming ranch went to his daughter, Ann. In Painted Rock, Wyoming, Caradec found land for a man to love, miles of rolling grasslands and towering mountains. He also found that one of the...

Kilkenny wasn't looking for trouble when he entered the Clifton House stage station, but trouble found him when a reckless youngster called Tetlow challenged him, drew his gun, and paid for it with his life. Looking to escape the fast-draw reputation he never wanted, Kilkenny settles in the lonely mountains of Utah, planning to ranch in a high, lush valley. Jared Tetlow is a powerful rancher who is determined to run his vast herd on the limited grasslands...

Logan Cates knew the many ways the Arizona desert could kill a man. He had ridden the sunblasted dunes, tracked the Apache over barren lava beds, sheltered in the dry washes of this forbidding land. Above all, he knew a man needed water to survive. Cates rode to Papago Wells a few miles ahead of an Apache war party led by the vicious Churupati. There he met a dozen desert wanderers whom chance had led to the only water between Yuma and hell. There...

A collection of nearly 1,000 quotations from the books of Louis L'Amour.