The  New York Times -bestselling Grand Master of suspense deftly displays the other side of his genius, with seven classic western tales of destiny and fatal decision . . . and trust as essential to survival as it is hard-earned. Trust was rare and precious in the wide-open towns that sprung up like weeds on America's frontier—with hustlers and hucksters arriving in droves by horse, coach, wagon, and rail, and gunmen working both sides of the law, all too eager to end a man's life with a well-placed bullet. In these classic tales that span more than five decades—including the first story he ever published, “The Trail of the Apache”—Elmore Leonard once again demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that have made him one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time. “Leonard is the real thing.” - Washington Post Book World “The man knows how to grab you.” - Entertainment Weekly “Even the earliest of his western yarns show Leonard to be a master storyteller.” - Los Angeles Times “Leonard has penned some of the best western fiction ever.” - USA Today Before he brilliantly traversed the gritty landscapes of underworld Detroit and Miami, the incomparable Elmore Leonard wrote breathtaking adventures set in America's nineteenth-century western frontier--elevating a popular genre with his now-trademark twisting plots, rich characterizations, and scalpel-sharp dialogue. There is a moment when obsession, rage, and destiny come together at the end of a shotgun barrel--when wrongs, actual or perceived, are addressed with violence, and the awesome power of life or death rests in a trigger finger. In seven magnificent stories of sins, crimes, conscience, and savage retribution, the New York Times -bestselling master carries us back to an untamed time and place where a simple transgression most often proved fatal . . . and the only true justice lived in the hands of the gunman. -- USA Today Before he brilliantly traversed the gritty landscapes of underworld Detroit and Miami, the incomparable Elmore Leonard wrote breathtaking adventures set in America's nineteenth-century western frontier—elevating a popular genre with his now-trademark twisting plots, rich characterizations, and scalpel-sharp dialogue. There is a moment when obsession, rage, and destiny come together at the end of a shotgun barrel—when wrongs, actual or perceived, are addressed with violence, and the awesome power of life or death rests in a trigger finger. In seven magnificent stories of sins, crimes, conscience, and savage retribution, the New York Times -bestselling master carries us back to an untamed time and place where a simple transgression most often proved fatal . . . and the only true justice lived in the hands of the gunman. Elmore Leonard wrote more than forty books during his long career, including the bestsellers  Raylan ,  Tishomingo Blues ,  Be Cool ,  Get Shorty , and  Rum Punch , as well as the acclaimed collection  When the Women Come Out to Dance , which was a  New York Times  Notable Book. Many of his books have been made into movies, including  Get Shorty  and  Out of Sight . The short story “Fire in the Hole,” and three books, including  Raylan , were the basis for the FX hit show  Justified . Leonard received the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He died in 2013. Moment of Vengeance and Other Stories By Elmore Leonard HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Elmore Leonard All right reserved. ISBN: 0060724285 Chapter One Law of the Hunted Ones Patman saw it first. The sudden flash of sun on metal; then, on the steepness of the hillside, it was a splinter of a gleam that hung unmoving amidst the confusion of jagged rock and brush. Just a dull gleam now that meant nothing, but the first metallic flash had been enough for Virgil Patman. He exhaled slowly, dropping his eyes from the gleam up on the slanting wall, and let his gaze drift up ahead through the narrowness, the way it would naturally. But his fists remained tight around the reins. He muttered to himself, "You damn fool." Cover was behind, a hundred feet or more, and a rifle can do a lot of pecking in a hundred feet. The boy doesn't see it, he thought. Else he would have been shooting by now. And then other words followed in his mind. Why do you think the boy's any dumber than you are? He shifted his hip in the saddle and turned his head halfway around. Dave Fallis was a few paces behind him and to the side. He was looking at his hands on the flat dinner-plate saddle horn, deep in thought. Patman drew tobacco and paper from his side coat pocket and held his mount in until the boy came abreast of him. "Don't look up too quick and don't make a sudden move," Patman said. He passed the paper along the tip of his tongue, then shaped it expertly in his bony, freckly fingers. He wasn't looking at the boy, but he could sense his he