Showing results for "Deserts" in Westerns

A collection of stories from the most famous Western author of all time! Desert Death-Song is a compilation of some of Louis L’Amour’s greatest stories, many of which might otherwise be difficult to find. Whether he was writing under his early pen name, Jim Mayo, or his own, L’Amour’s stories are unforgettable, touching on rough and rugged American ideals, and set in the untamable frontier of the Western United States.

No one tells tales of the frontier better than Louis L'Amour, who portrays the human side of westward expansion - the good and the bad - before the days of law and order. Collected here are seven stories penned by America's favorite Western author.

Young farmer Kurt Dorn is torn between going to France to fight the Germans, or staying in America to be with the woman he loves and protect his wheat crop against saboteurs who question his loyalties. He struggles to come to terms with his deepest beliefs and his place in the world.

Jack Hare, a tough, young cowboy, owes his life to August Naab, the stern but kind old settler who rescued him from sure death and offered him refuge. But Hare soon learns that Naab's Utah ranch is little more than an island paradise surrounded by a sea of danger. Hare must meet the challenge of a brazen gang of cattle thieves and of a corrupt rancher who attempts to steal Naab's water rights. But Hare faces even greater danger when he fights for the woman he loves: Mescal, the slender half-Navajo shepherdess who is already promised in marriage to Naab's firstborn son. Hare knows he must stop the marriage but he can't kill the son of his benefactor - that is, until a gun battle with a band of rustlers brings the two face-to-face over drawn pistols!

Here is another marvelous Zane Grey novel. In his magnificent style, Zane Grey has crafted a story that’s both moving and exciting with new perils in every chapter. Not only is there gun fighting, cattle rustling and the battle over water holes, but the thrilling capture and winning over of Silvermane, the magnificent wild stallion admired and wanted by every white man and Indian on the desert. All of this is intermingled with tender love between the main character, Jack Hare and the beautiful half-breed maiden, Mescal.

In the title story, Murdo Morgan left Paradise Valley 16 years ago, after his brothers had been killed at the hand of the Turkey Track outfit. One year later, his father died a broken and defeated man. Broad Clancy, owner of the Turkey Track, has remained the controlling force in this area of high desert in Oregon, considering all the land to be open range, including the six-mile strip on both sides of the old wagon road which belongs to Cascade and Paradise Land Company. He fears that Morgan will return to exact his revenge for the death of his brothers.

Zane Grey's tale shines like the gold in this story. He deftly combines the contemporary history of the border uprising between the United States and Mexico with a fast-moving adventure tale. The prologue describes the finding of gold and the sad plight of the prospectors who discovered it. They will the treasure to the story's heroine. Dick Gale, an eastern college football star, and not much else, teams up with an old friend to rescue the girl and make a man of himself.

Texas Ranger Thorne and his friend, Dick Gale, rescue beautiful Mercedes Castaneda from the ruthless bandit Rojas and his Mexican cut-throats.

Jack Hare is a young New Englander who has decided to travel to the West. He is rescued from sure death in the Utah desert by an old settler named August Naab, a Mormon patriarch. Jack is taken to Nabb's ranch and learns that it can be a dangerous place, since it is challenged by cattle thieves and a corrupt rancher who is after Naab's water rights. The greatest danger Hare faces, though, is over Mescal, a half-Navajo shepherdess with whom he falls in love.

When John Curry, galloping across the desert to save the life of an Indian child, was thrown from his horse and badly injured, he was rescued by a woman whose husband became his deadly enemy - for Wilbur Newton was both jealous and afraid. He was jealous of the love of his beautiful and lonely wife, who seemed each day more powerfully attracted to the dashing Curry, and fearful for the safety of an ingenious scheme.

Traveling to visit her uncle Nate at his Rancho del Encanto, Hope Farman, who gets thrown from her seat into the path of a stampeding herd, escapes with her life when she is rescued by Channing, a somewhat mysterious man who was born on the desert and has lived there ever since.

John Hare lies dying in the desert until he is discovered and saved by the kind and generous rancher, August Naab. As Hare is nursed back to health on Naab’s ranch, he finds himself irresistibly attracted to Naab’s adopted daughter, Mescal. But Mescal is being relentlessly pursued by Holderness, a man who is not to be trusted. Hare is soon drawn into a web of adventure and intrigue over land, water, and the heart of a beautiful woman, all set against the sweeping backdrop of the Wild West.

Zane Grey wrote this splendidly thrilling sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage in 1915, but for almost 90 years it has existed in a profoundly censored version. At last, the real story can be told.

In Black Rock Desert, when Lee Cone is hired by Braz Boland to chouse a herd of horses from Carbide Junction into Maacama Basin through Black Rock Desert, he has no idea that it will reignite the old enmity between himself and Tasker Scott. Cone had left the basin two years earlier, when the girl he loved married Scott. Also: Buck English in the title story has been a hard and bitter loner willing to step outside the law ever since his father Martin, former sheriff of the county, had been killed by outlaws.

One day, Gladstone Brass spotted buzzards circling, and curiosity led him to investigate. He found a dead burro and an injured Bitter Bowler, his enemy, with his revolver trained on Brass. Bowler claimed he had broken his leg and couldn't move. He wanted Brass' water. When Brass refused, Bowler shot Brass' burro, Tia Maria, then told him the next shot would be for him if he didn't leave his water and supplies and get more water and something he could use for a crutch.

The Desert Between Us is a sweeping, multilayered novel based on the US government’s decision to open more routes to California during the Gold Rush. To help navigate this waterless, largely unexplored territory, the War Department imported 75 camels from the Middle East to help traverse the brutal terrain that was murderous on other livestock. Geoffrey Scott, one of the roadbuilders, decides to venture north to discover new opportunities in the opening of the American West when he - and the camels - are no longer needed.

Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack is headed for Yuma, escorting Harvey "Cisco" Lang to prison and Adele Simpson to safety. He knows full well of their shared romantic history, and even though Adele swears she's done with Cisco, Burrack is keeping a hard eye on her as well as on the outlaw. But his companions are the least of his worries. A ruthless cattle baron has put a five-thousand-dollar price on Burrack's head - and every low-life bounty hunter and bandit across the Painted Desert is looking to claim it…

The Western world’s finest criminal investigator is on the case and is soon pursuing his quarry across Germany. But the hunter will become the hunted - and Desert Fire will soar to its spectacular climax.

As tense, short story Westerns go, W.C. Tuttle's "Spawn of the Desert", set in the 1850s rugged Southwest mountains, is a splendid, fast-paced example of the classic genre of tales of gold and silver mining towns run by ruthless men, and inhabited by an eclectic population of miners, gamblers, gunmen, drunks, hardscrabble women, and the obligatory "colorful" characters. Tuttle (1883-1969) was one of the most prolific Western writers of his day, with more than 40 novels and short stories to his credit.

Jim Morton joins a posse that is hunting his friend Nat Bodine who is accused of robbing a stage and shooting the sheriff.