The New York Times -bestselling Grand Master of suspense deftly displays the other side of his genius, with thirty 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 gunfighters and outlaws working both sides of the law, all too eager to end a man’s life with a well-placed bullet. In this landmark collection of classic westerns that spans 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, 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. No author has ever written more evocatively of the dusty, gutsy heyday of the American West than Elmore Leonard. This complete collection of his thirty-one Western tales will thrill lovers of the genre, his die-hard fans, and everyone in between. From his very first story ever published—"The Trail of the Apache"—through five decades of classic Western tales, The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that has made Leonard one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time. 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. The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard By Elmore Leonard HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2007 Elmore Leonard All right reserved. ISBN: 9780061242922 Chapter One Trail of the Apache Original title: Apache Agent Argosy , December 1951 Under the thatched roof ramada that ran the length of the agency office, Travisin slouched in a canvas-backed chair, his boots proppedagainst one of the support posts. His gaze took in the sun-beaten, grayadobe buildings, all one-story structures, that rimmed the vacant quadrangle.It was a glaring, depressing scene of sun on rock, without a singleshade tree or graceful feature to redeem the squat ugliness. Therewas not a living soul in sight. Earlier that morning, his White MountainApache charges had received their two-weeks' supply of beef and flour.By now they were milling about the cook fires in front of their wickiups,eating up a two-weeks' ration in two days. Most of the Indians had builttheir wickiups three miles farther up the Gila, where the flat, dry landbegan to buckle into rock-strewn hills. There the thin, sparse Gila cottonwoodsgrew taller and closer together and the mesquite and pricklypear thicker. And there was the small game that sustained them whentheir government rations were consumed. At the agency, Travisin lived alone. By actual count there wereforty-two Coyotero Apache scouts along with the interpreter, BarneyFry, and his wife, a Tonto woman, but as the officers at Fort Thomaslooked at it, he was living alone. There is no question that to mostyoung Eastern gentlemen on frontier station, such an alien meansof existence would have meant nothing more than a very slow way todie, with boredom reading the services. But, of course, they were notTravisin. From Whipple Barracks, through San Carlos and on down to FortHuachuca, it went without argument that Eric Travisin was the bestApache campaigner in Arizona Territory. There was a time, of course,when this belief was not shared by all and the question would pop up often,along the trail, in the barracks at Fort Thomas, or in a Globe barroom.Barney Fry's name would always come up then -- though most discountedhim for his one-quarter Apache blood. But that was a time in the pastwhen Eric Travisin was still new; before the sweltering sand-rock Apachecountry had burned and gou