Louis L’Amour brings the Wild West back to life in three unstoppable adventures! “Mistakes Can Kill You” is the story of Johnny O’Day. Half-dead from pneumonia and on the brink of giving up, he was taken in as a boy and nursed back to health by a young couple. Growing up, Johnny harbored nothing but resentment and jealousy of their biological son, Sam. But now Sam is in big trouble, and it seems that Johnny may be the only person who can come between his half brother and a pair of gunmen. Ross Haney is “The Rider of Ruby Hills.” At twenty-seven, he’s broke, armed, and ready to settle down. But when a feud breaks out between the owners of two of the biggest spreads in Ruby Hills, it looks like the fair town is on the brink of destruction. Ross was a loner at first, but now he’s got allies and a plan . . . In the title story, Krag Moran is a rider who becomes involved in a range war among ranchers and nesters. The town is divided, and by the time shots are fired and the body count starts to rise, Krag will have a lot of explaining to do to the wrong people. Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns—books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians—are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. “L’Amour is the kind of storyteller who makes the wolves come out of the woods to listen.” — People magazine “A strong case may be made that L’Amour was the most popular American writer of the 20th century.”— The Wall Street Journal Louis L’Amour was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore in Jamestown, North Dakota, in 1908. He published his first work at the age of eighteen and went on to write scores of adventure and Western stories, becoming one of the most popular writers of all time. He died in 1988 at his home in Los Angeles. The Man from Battle Flat A Western Trio By Louis LAmour, Jon Tuska Skyhorse Publishing Copyright © 2010 Golden West Literary Agency All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-62914-371-2 Contents Foreword, Mistakes Can Kill You, The Rider of the Ruby Hills, The Man from Battle Flat, About the Editor, CHAPTER 1 Mistakes Can Kill You Ma Redlin looked up from the stove. "Where's Sam? He still out yonder?" Johnny rubbed his palms on his chaps. "He ain't comin' to supper, Ma. He done rode off." Pa and Else were watching him, and Johnny saw the hard lines of temper around Pa's mouth and eyes. Ma glanced at him apprehensively, but when Pa did not speak, she looked to her cooking. Johnny walked around the table and sat down across from Else. When Pa reached for the coffee pot, he looked over at Johnny. "Was he alone, boy? Or did he ride off with that no-account Albie Bower?" It was in Johnny neither to lie nor to carry tales. Reluctantly he replied: "He was with somebody. I reckon I couldn't be sure who it was." Redlin snorted and put down his cup. It was a sore point with Joe Redlin that his son and only child should take up with the likes of Albie Bower. Back in Pennsylvania and Ohio the Redlins had been good God-fearing folk, while Bower was no good, and came from a no-good outfit. Lately he had been flashing money around, but he claimed to have won it gambling at Degner's Four Star Saloon. "Once more I'll tell him," Redlin said harshly. "I'll have no son of mine traipsin' with that Four Star outfit. Pack of thieves, that's what they are." Ma looked up worriedly. She was a buxom woman with a round apple-cheeked face. Good humor was her normal manner. "Don't you be sayin' that away from home, Joe Redlin. That Loss Degner is a gunslinger, and he'd like nothin' so much as to shoot you after you takin' Else from him." "I ain't afeerd of him." Redlin's voice was flat. Johnny knew that what he said was true. Joe Redlin was not afraid of Degner, but he avoided him, for Redlin was a small rancher, a one-time farmer, and not a fighting man. Loss Degner was bad all through and made no secret of it. His Four Star was the hangout for all the tough element, and Degner had killed two men since Johnny had been in the country, as well as pistol-whipping a half dozen more. It was not Johnny's place to comment, but secretly he knew the older Redlin was right. Once he had even gone so far as to warn Sam, but it only made the older boy angry. Sam was almost twenty-one and Johnny but seventeen, but Sam's family had protected him and he had lived always close to the competence of Pa Redlin. Johnny had been doing a man's work since he was thirteen, fighting a man's battles, and making his own way in a hard world. Johnny also knew what only Else seemed to guess, th