(Jim Curran) “Guess I can reach ’em,” he said. Ridley grabbed his arm. “Don’t!” he yelled. “That’s Jim, on the dun!” Bud dropped his rifle, and the nine riders stood there, gazing upon distant drama which in the clear air seemed so close. It appeared as though the black horseman was fleeing,“Oh, God!” gasped Bud Kendall; and horror-stricken, they saw the dun mare go down. With her rider, she crumpled to the earth, seemed to hang for a moment in a heap at the edge of the drop, and then go down, down, in sickening, overturning fall, to the merciless rocks below. (Slim MacPherson) “It’s here!” Guen’s voice cried again. “Slim! Slim!” Slim’s heart gave a strange, quickened throb at her calling to him for help. “It’s all right, girl,’ he answered softly. “I’m here.” She had half risen from the couch of spruce boughs, and stopped short, staring at what crouched on the other side of the low fire. “Don’t move!” said Slim. He was outside the ring of light cast by the brush fire. Almost as his voice reached her, there came the quick report and flash, and the great cat leaped in the air, (King Norn) Convinced that the six- shooter had been Bundy's sole weapon, Norn leaped back from him. Bundy gained his feet, and stared stupidly at his assailant. Norn slapped him with his open hand. "Fight," snapped the rancher. Bundy gave a wild squeal of rage, and charged down with fists swinging like flails. Norn could have knocked him cold, but he wanted to save him for punishment. (Jim Evans) Jim quit his riding job for the Bar L, seven days ago and left the grass country. He thanked Jeff Lively for hiring him on the year before, and told the older man he just wanted to see some new country. Three months before he had ridden high up on the Chiricahua mountains searching for strays. He found them, and brought them down. But Jim had also found something else. In my families library of thousands of books and other writings dealing with the American west, are several thousand books of western fiction. These are in printed form and there are also many in digital format. While combing through some magazines from the early 1900s, I often come across stories of the Old West. These were written by talented authors who would go on to have long careers in several fields of entertainment. These authors were popular in their time (over 100 years ago) but now their popularity and fame has faded to almost nothing. Their exciting adventurous tales of the American west have been forsaken, left to crumble, as the pages do of old magazines. It occurred to me that unlike Zane Grey or Owen Wister, many of these tales were likely only printed once. Deciding it would be such a waste not to share these with a world of western adventure fans, I have chosen some of my favorites for this collection. While there are many westerns in our collection that we do not have the rights to publish, we have made certain of the secure publishing rights for these. There is adventure, comedy, romance and extreme drama in the pages of these stories. Three of these stories were written around 100 years ago, when the west was still a bit wild in places, and some of the authors had a realtime knowledge of the ruggedness of the American west. The first story in this collection is by Laurie York Erskine from 1925. The second is by Izola Forrester from 1912. The third is by Robert V. Carr from 1918. The fourth is one of my original western short stories. I have read hundreds of western books, biographies and fiction. Fiction from Louis L'amour, Zane Grey, Will Cook, Richard Brister, Norman A. Fox, Max Brand, Will Ermine, Leigh Brackett, Ernest Haycox, Frank Bonham and many more. I know good western fiction! If you have enjoyed the classic authors I have listed, I am confident you will enjoy these stories as well. Bob Terry