Showing results by author "Max Brand" in All Categories

hn Signal, fleeing from a murder charge in a fair fight, arrives in the mining town of Monument. Calling himself John Alias, he is made a deputy sheriff by Sheriff Peter Ogden, who puts Alias between two crooked factions and fails to give him any support.

"The Seventh Man" (1921) is a unique western novel with well-sketched characters by Max Brand. Excerpt: "A man under thirty needs neighbors; and to stop up the current of his life with a long silence is like obstructing a river - eventually the water either sweeps away the dam or rises over it, and the stronger the dam the more destructive is that final rush to freedom. Vic Gregg was on the danger side of thirty and he lived alone in the mountains all that winter.

This is the rousing story of Cheyenne, a gunfighter whose shooting hand was badly wounded by a bullet and now he cannot draw his gun. Word got around that he was a coward, a "yellow dog," and soon in uneven battle with his enemies, he finds his redemption.

When he first arrived in the town of Lister, no one knew anything about him except that he didn't speak... that he was probably a deaf mute. No one knew what to call him, so they called him Shannon. He bought supplies and ventured into a secluded valley and made enough money to take care of himself by selling pelts in town.Then one day Shannon came upon a horse that had been abused and was near death....

Lew Carney, a loner who traverses the deserts between the Sierras and the Rockies, and makes his living sharking cards, is not superstitious. But when a wagon, pulled by eight silent men, appears out of the darkness near his campfire, then disappears into thin air by dawn, Carney fears he may be in the grip of the supernatural.

Werewolf by Max Brand in Western Story Magazine (12/18/26) involves just such an inward journey for Christopher Royal, who is convinced he is a coward and flees a confrontation with Harry Main, who is a gunfighter. There comes a time in this story - when Christopher encounters the aged Indian, the old wise man - that the terrain shimmers with the multiple affinities of meaning conjured by the unconscious, which Vergil once sought to capture within an image both awesome and sinister: numina magna deum [the great divine power of a god].

Barney Dwyer is a gentle giant who has yet to find a place in the world. Capturing two notorious outlaws has made a hero of him, so much so that rancher Robert Parmelee offers him a job on his ranch to put a stop to persistent rustling. Taking the job promises an income sufficient for Barney to marry his sweetheart. But this promise for the future falls into jeopardy when the outlaws escape, determined to kill Barney.

He swept down from the north like a cold blast from hell. His name was Red Pierre and he was riding a vengeance trail.

They said the man he hunted couldn't be beat. But six years of riding outlaw with a wolf-pack left him with a burning hate and a taste for blood.

Now he was going to get the man who shot his father. But he'd need more than hate and a gun. What he really needed was the help of a good woman.

In Traynor, the title character is believed to be a weak young man, having let Dr. Parker Channing steal his love, Rose Laymon, away from him. When the stage Traynor is driving into Little Snake is robbed and Traynor’s best friend and stage guard, Sam Whitney, is killed by the robber, Traynor chases the thief and recovers his dropped Stetson, which was sold to Dr. Channing less than a month earlier. In Luck and a Horse, Tommy Grant works day and night on the farm of the tyrant and master manipulator Sylvester Train, who has not paid him for 19 months.

Terry Shawn was a kind-hearted outlaw. He took from the rich and gave to the poor and while doing so, stole the heart of a beautiful young woman. Infuriated lawmen could never catch up with him. But deep in one secluded valley lived an older man with such a haunted past, he chose the solitude of a wild mountain range to find peace for his troubled soul. From this man named Shannon, Terry came to know the real meaning of honesty and friendship.

The Red Well is called that by Jerry Finnegan when the water in the well on his ranch turns that color. Finnegan asks Charlie Kimball to help him defend the ranch and protect his wife Sarah andyoung son from the threat of death by Slade and his gang. Slade wants the ranch and will murderto get it if Finnegan refuses to sell. For Charlie Kimball the reason driving Slade can only be thered water in the well.

This bundle features “The Danger Lover” and the title story, in which 22-year-old Lewis Dikkon has led a sheltered life, working seven days a week as a shoemaker for his taskmaster uncle, Charles Bender. Being inside most of the time, he knows little of the town and its inhabitants. A stranger named Sam Prentiss begins showing up at 8 p.m. every Saturday night to sit in a chair in the shop’s doorway and look across the street for an hour. Their conversations, though limited, begin to set Dikkon’s mind to work and before long he decides he wants to buy a gun.

Versatility was a key talent of author Frederick Faust using the pseudonym Max Brand. What you’re about to hear is one of his lesser known stories that ranks as a prime example of his stupendous ability.

Winsor Glanvil pays court to Louise Carney, heiress to a fortune, and she agrees to marry him. The marriage is opposed by big Jack Rutledge, a jealous rival and formidable foe, so Glanvil and Louise plan to be married in a sequestered valley by a local clergyman. Rutledge and his supporters, learning of the plan, arrive in the valley ahead of the two and seize Glanvil. Glanvil is beaten mercilessly and Rutledge disfigures him, destroying one side of his face with the cutting edge of a spur. Rutledge then rejoins his gang in the clergyman’s house.

The Untamed is a pioneering Wild West novel. Whistlin' Dan Barry is the hero, with his black stallion Satan and wolf dog Black Bart. The villain and leader of the gang of thugs, Jim Silent, is a thief, a killer, and a liar. He kidnaps Whistlin’ Dan’s adopted father and the woman he loves, and then war ensues, with a riveting end to the thugs.

Harry Camden came out of the wilderness unwillingly. It was a girl who attracted him. But Sparrow Roberts, a fight manager, used this romantic lure only to attract Harry into his own sphere, because he knew that Camden had a truly devastating punch.

Blackie and Red were running away from the orphanage when they were found by Andy Connell. He offered them a home with him and his wife. The boys were as different as the color of their hair, and each had his own approach to getting ahead in the world. Blackie scorned Red's proud determination to be his own man. And, when Andy Connell struck it rich, Blackie just knew that life was going to give him everything he deserved.

Frederick Schiller Faust was a prolific writer who wrote under a number of pseudonyms. One of these was Max Brand. Gunman's Reckoning is the story of a drifter who is given the job of righting a great wrong. In the midst of carrying out his task, he finds out that he was not told the entire truth. He continues anyway, because in doing the job, he has stumbled on the answer to a long quest of his own. This book is a western romance that has a bit of everything: love, mystery, lies, action and humor.

The wounded outlaw blurted out the warning to range boss Jim Seton, and Seton knew that if he wasn't careful, the man's words would prove true; Doug Walters' men were out for his blood. After five years in prison, Seton dared to return to the hostile town he called home - and within shooting range of the one man who would pay a fortune to see him dead.

Rusty Sabin extracts two bags of gold from the Sacred Valley, partly to spend on Maisry Lester, the girl he hopes to marry. When frontiersman Charlie Galway tries to steal the gold, Galway murders Maisry's father and blames Rusty's friend, Standing Bull.