Showing results by author "Max Brand" in All Categories

Werewolf by Max Brand in Western Story Magazine (12/18/26) involves just such an inward journey for Christopher Royal, who is convinced he is a coward and flees a confrontation with Harry Main, who is a gunfighter. There comes a time in this story - when Christopher encounters the aged Indian, the old wise man - that the terrain shimmers with the multiple affinities of meaning conjured by the unconscious, which Vergil once sought to capture within an image both awesome and sinister: numina magna deum [the great divine power of a god].

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.

This is the rousing story of Cheyenne, a gunfighter whose shooting hand was badly wounded by a bullet and now he cannot draw his gun. Word got around that he was a coward, a "yellow dog," and soon in uneven battle with his enemies, he finds his redemption. 

The knife missed him by a fraction of an inch! Then he reached under his pillow, grabbed his gun and fired into the darkness. If Alvarez survives, he'll look for one man, an unbeatable bodyguard or the assassin who wants him dead. Either will do. 

Hagger is a man on the run, a thief and would-be killer. He's no good on a horse, and feels miserable and out of place in the snowbound high country. But, then, Hagger comes upon a white bull terrier, abandoned in a mountain cabin, and his whole life begins to change. 

Jack Sherry and Bill Garvin are both dealers in wet cattle until Jack Sherry is caught and forced to take the grim trail to the gallows. Bill Garvin is left behind, bitter and distraught, but hopeful that somehow he will be able to mend the bullet-frayed fabric of a broken faith. 

A Caribbean hurricane smashes a revolutionary army before they can fight. Then a fearless stranger is washed ashore and leads the ragtag soldiers into battle. Who is he and why does he risk his life? 

Haypress feeding is a brutal test of strength that can kill a man. Cafferty isn't worried. He's going after Frenchie's record anyway - the prize is a dream come true. 

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.

Every fall Tom Reynard, ramrod for the Bar L, had a hard time finding cowpunchers willing to work the winter range in the bleak badlands near the Sioux reservation. So when Jigger Bunts, an 18-year-old from New York who was familiar with riding and roping, happened along, he was hired even though his youth was a red flag to Reynard. To pass the time in the bunkhouse, the other cowhands spin tall tales for Bunts, whom they call the kid, about the exploits of Reynard, and soon Reynard becomes Bunts' hero and role model.

Jim Conover possessed the reputation of a man fast with a gun. But if he had to depend on that quickness today, he would be a dead man. The marvelous deftness of that right hand is gone, ruined in a dynamite explosion. And now he is a respected man working as a prospector.

Rusty Sabin extracts two bags of gold from the Sacred Valley, partly to spend on Maisry Lester, the girl he hopes to marry. When frontiersman Charlie Galway tries to steal the gold, Galway murders Maisry's father and blames Rusty's friend, Standing Bull.

Steven Train is and has long been a thief and card sharp. He has gone by other names. He is sought out by another crook, John Ranier, with a proposal. Rainer saved a rich rancher, Patrick Comstock, from serious injury and was rewarded with an easy job, working for Comstock. Rainer tells Steve Train that Comstock is looking for an honest man who is also adept with firearms to undertake a very dangerous and responsible mission. Comstock has asked Ranier to help find such a man.

As he rode into Dunphyville, Dan Harrigan noted the broken windows, smashed doors, collapsing verandas. The Blacksmith's shop had been set on fire, the saloon wrecked, and the general store shot up. He nodded knowingly. There were only a dozen buildings in this small town, but they all bore the Mark of Angus "Black" MacTee. Dan Harrigan and Angus MacTee were friends and partners once; but their mutual love for pretty Kate Malone had turned them into Mortal Enemies.

Speedy probably had a last name, but no one knows it--a young man, a loafer, a drifter, a tramp. He does not usually use a gun, although in "Nighthawk Trail" he does, but it is only an elaborate illusion. Speedy is regarded as one of the most dangerous men in the West. The object of his quest is to find the great horse Nighthawk, bought for $7,000 by old Joshua Crane.

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.

The Red Well is called that by Jerry Finnegan when the water in the well on his ranch turns that color. Finnegan asks Charlie Kimball to help him defend the ranch and protect his wife Sarah andyoung son from the threat of death by Slade and his gang. Slade wants the ranch and will murderto get it if Finnegan refuses to sell. For Charlie Kimball the reason driving Slade can only be thered water in the well.

Jargan is a summer gambler wintering in the western town of Big Horn when he saves the life of Don José Cordoba and unwittingly acquires a new job. Soon he finds himself on a boat to Buenos Aires, having gained passage as the horse handler of two extraordinary horses: one called El Pantera, and a killer named Asesinato. He must use his innate wisdom and survival skills to protect himself and his charge against malignant men with a brutal love of cruelty.

This audiobook contains two of legendary Western author Max Brand's short novels for your listening pleasure. The Valley of Jewels: Doc Willis, despite the nickname, is just an unemployed cowboy in Daggett Valley, a place that holds many secrets from the past - including a now-deserted mining camp. When Buck Logan lures Willis to the camp with the promise of great riches, Doc doesn't even suspect he is about to play a part in a most subtle feat of deception.