Gunman

This collection brings together three Western novellas by Lauran Paine. In the first, Buck Carrell is settled on a modest ranch when a woman stumbles to his doorstep and collapses. She says she was a passenger on a nearby stagecoach that was robbed. When Buck rides out to look into her story, she vanishes before he gets back.

The second story follows Coke Bright, a wanderer who joins a small wagon train bound for the far West. When hostile Apaches threaten the group, Coke offers to guide them through the danger. The greatest peril, however, turns out to be among the immigrants themselves.

The final tale centers on Ray Kelly, who returns to the town of Welton after five years in Yuma Prison for rustling cattle. Nobody in town welcomes him, the sheriff included, but years of bitterness and a vengeful obsession have left him determined to carry on regardless.

Paine is the author of Open Range, the novel that inspired the film of the same name starring Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, and Annette Bening.