Adventures and Western. Book 10

Adventures and Western. Book 10: 1. The Hair-Trigger Kid; 2. In the River Bottom's Grip; 3. The Lightning Warrior.


1. The Hair-Trigger Kid: Published - 1931

«Two things waited for John Milman when he got West. One was his family, and the other was the spring. When he got to the end of the railroad, he could see spring eating its way up the mountains, taking the white from their shoulders and streaking the desert itself with green. But his family was not on hand with means to take him out to the ranch, and therefore he had to wait restlessly in the hotel, pacing up and down his room, and damning all delays. Sheriff Lew Walters was in that room, trying to help his friend kill time and uselessly pointing out that in an hour or two, at the most, the wife and daughter of Milman were sure to arrive. He might as well have read a ter out of the Bible. Or better, perhaps…»


2. In the River Bottom's Grip: Published - 1925

«Naturally it was not the first time he had taken a loan; that was the direct cause of his downfall. But when a rancher borrows, he usually pays very dearly for it. The cattle business is too uncertain to make banks lend gladly. A famine season may ruin the most prosperous rancher; and so the rates run high on cattle money. Now, of all times Furnival having his back against the wall, money at six per cent was like money donated freely. He glared at Melody, hunting for the joke behind this suggestion, but when he found the eye of the younger man bright and steady, he looked wildly around him, then back again to this minister of grace...»


3. The Lightning Warrior: Published -1932

The Lightning Warrior is the name given to the great white wolf that is so swift in attacking its prey. A bounty is offered but no one can catch or kill the animal, that is until Cobalt arrives in the area.

When the giant known as Cobalt offers the white wolf, Lightning Warrior, to Sylvia Baird, he expects her hand in marriage. But Sylvia reneges on an earlier promise and takes flight. 

«Baird spoke first. “It’s Cobalt!”

He had the glasses fixed against his eyes. When I heard him say this, I reached over, and he handed me the glasses. The picture drew closer. It wasCobalt. He had dragged from the pack on his sled a rifle which he held to his shoulder with his left hand alone, and at this moment he was firing into some brush to the right of the sled.

There was no answering shot at Cobalt, but another of Cobalt’s dogs went down. Then I understood.