Early in Louis L'Amour's career, he wrote a number of novel-length stories for "pulp" Western magazines. "I lived with my characters so closely that their lives were still as much a part of me as I was of them long after the issues in which they appeared went out of print," he said. "I wanted to tell the reader more about my people and why they did what they did." So he revised and expanded these magazine works to be published again as full-length...

Lance Kilkenny has a debt to pay. Hes determined not to let the friend who saved his life go down in a range war. But when Kilkenny tries to stop the fighting, he finds there's more at stake than land and wire. Whoever is stirring up trouble has big ideas for the Live Oak country and has an army of hired guns to back them up. Nita Riordan, the beautiful and fiery owner of the Apple Canyon Saloon, warns Lance that the mystery man orchestrating the...