Showing results by narrator "David Scott" in All Categories

Original story published in Lariat story magazine - July 1947.

Julia's daddy was the judge in town. He used to be fair, but recently it seemed that had changed. What cost to regular folks would there be?

Wayne D. Overholser, winner of three Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, weaves a magic spell in this story with his consistent skill in presenting vibrant characters and his uncommon sensitivity to the depths of human personality.

A classic tale that features all the beloved subjects and icons - stagecoaches, gold rush towns, and whiskey bars - that represent the romance and excitement of America's frontier.

Caleb Doorn is better known by his Blackfoot name, Many Coups. Doorn is scouting for the US Army in the Mexican campaign when a small wagon train passes on its way to California. Their trek will take them into Indian country, and to protect the train from attack, the wagon master has foolishly taken a young Blackfoot woman hostage.

In 30 years of prospecting, old Jim had never discovered Amber's Mirage - a shining cliff above a spring that ran heavy with gold. But his young sidekick took up the search to find the gold - a search that would cost him two years away from wild Ruby, the woman he loved.

A beautiful woman, a powerful Mexican rancher, and an exotic new breed of cattle come to John Slaughter’s San Bernardino Valley ranch, along with the prospect of making a small fortune. While Slaughter’s men are out keeping the peace in Tombstone, an act of betrayal turns up the heat under his own roof, and a killer is stalking Slaughter’s wealthy Mexican guest. Indians suddenly savagely attack Slaughter’s ranch, but it is only the first shot in a bigger, blazing Arizona bloodbath.

It was a duty to a dead man. Matt Jensen had promised his friend, slain by an outlaw named Pogue Willis, that he would deliver money to his brother in St. Louis. But Matt's search leads him from St. Louis to Arizona Territory and into the company of a rich Easterner and his beautiful young wife. For Matt, the schemes of some citified land prospectors don't mean much, until the young woman is seized by renegade Apaches and it's up to Matt to save her life from brutal death.... 

The mountains are brimming with the lure of fortunes — from gold to a booming fur trade. A man at home in this once pristine wilderness, Preacher knows there’s no turning back civilization now. What he doesn’t know is that beyond the plans of some men is a deadly enemy with far more dangerous designs....

In a hail of thunder and gunfire, Jeston Nash fled a new Orleans billiards hall with a land deed in one hand, a blazing pistol in the other. He'd won his gamble with Quick Quintan Cordell fair and square. But in seconds, violence flared, Cordell lay dead, and Sheriff Pat Garret's voice still rang in Nash's ears...somewhere, someday, they would meet again....Jeston Nash learned about robbery from his cousin, Jesse James. But it was the wild outlaw Billy the Kid who taught him that even a wanted man is just a man. Nash catches up with the kid in a dusty town of drunken bottle-shooters.

In the cattle drives of the Old West, pumpkin rollers were green farmboys, almost more trouble than they were worth. When Trey McLean leaves his family's East Texas cotton farm and sets off on his own to learn the cattleman's trade, he's about as green as they come. But Trey learns fast. He learns about deceit when a con man cheats him out of his grubstake and about love when he meets the woman he's destined to marry. 

No one wants you to tamper with a legend, especially by telling the truth. So begins the story of a proud man named Thomas Canfield. He is descended from the earliest Texas pioneers and has inherited their courage and fortitude. To the Mexican citizens of Stonehill, Texas, he is “El Gavilán” - the Hawk - so called for the fire in his eyes, especially when confronted by the likes of Branch Isom. This insolent, dangerous newcomer intends to build his fortune at Canfield’s expense but underestimates his opponent. 

The Nueces Strip in southwest Texas of 1875, harbored Mexican border raiders, Texan vigilantes, a mixed population of cattle ranchers and hard scrabble farmers, all fighting the land, the weather and each other. Into the cauldron descend 40 Texas Rangers, under the leadership of Captain Leander McNelly, with orders to stop the raids, quell the fighting and bring peace to the strip. Based on historical events, the tale takes us into the lives of Rangers, raiders, ranchers and farmers as they endure the hardships of this violent chapter in Texas history.

For Gage Jameson, the summer of 1873 has been a poor hunt. A year ago he felled 62 buffalo in one stand, but now the great Arkansas River herd is gone, like the Republican herd before it. In Dodge City, old hide hunters speak is awe of a last great heard to the south - but no hunter who values his scalp dares ride south of the Cimarron and into Comanche territory. None but Gage Jameson....

In Massacre at Goliad, tensions mount between Mexican authorities and American newcomers. Revolution is in the air, something Thomas Buckalew welcomes but his brother Joshua fears, since Joshua is in love with a Mexican girl. The story touches on the immortal battle of the Alamo but centers on the infamous Goliad massacre, and ultimately the decisive battle of San Jacinto, which made Texas an independent republic.

In "Pecos Crossing", two young cowboys, Johnny Fristo and Speck Quitman, have been cheated of six months’ hard-earned pay by their rancher boss, Larramore and intend to get what is due to them. In "Shotgun", Two Forks, Texas, rancher Blair Bishop must contend with a mean customer named Macy Modock, who Bishop sent to prison 10 years past. Modock is out of the hoosegow and has returned to Two Forks determined to get even with the man who sent him up the river.

Wagon boss Hugh Hitchcock knows the cowboy life better than most: In 1883, if you’re a cowboy, you can’t own a cow and you are stigmatized as a drunk. Worse, you are exploited by the wealthy cattle owners who fence the range, replace traditions and trust with written rules of employment, refuse to pay a livable wage, and change things “that ought to be left alone”. The cowboys working in the Canadian River country of the Texas Panhandle decide to fight back, to do the unthinkable: Go on strike.

Cuno Massey may be a federal fugitive, but he’s Deputy US Marshal Spurr Morgan’s best chance to run down a gang of gunrunners. A wagon train of rifles, ammunition, Gatling guns, and dynamite was stolen by US Cavalry deserters who intend to sell the weapons to a Mexican general waging war against Yaqui Indians. To even the odds against them, Cuno and Spurr form an alliance with Ojos de Fuega — “Fire Eyes” — a Yaqui queen as savage as she is beautiful, and her band of renegades.

Cuno Massey killed those deputy US marshals all right, but only because they were about to rape the women he was escorting to safety. Thrown into a federal penitentiary, he faces a death sentence - until the beautiful Camilla and her cutthroat gang bust him out and head for the Mexican border. Pursued by lawmen as brutal as the desperadoes he travels with, Cuno rides a bloody trail, unsure where his allegiances lie, and wondering if he was better off waiting for the gallows....

Cuno Massey is determined to start a new, peaceful life. But when he comes across a prison wagon under attack, he can’t just ride on. A gang of outlaws is hell-bent on granting four hardened convicts an early release, and with two other lawmen down, the marshal is badly outnumbered. Dispensing frontier justice from the barrel of his Colt .45, Cuno does his best to even the odds and keep the murderous animals where they belong — in their cage. But the trail is long, and the gang is relentless. Looks like Cuno has just signed on for the ride of his life.