Bitter Water

Most of the characters in these seven stories spend a lot of time in the saddle-chasing or being chased, standing and fighting, or making a run for it. In the short-short "Ride to Black Creek," Jake stumbles into a scrape with Apaches. In "Barrow and the Marm," two boys fall under the contrasting spells of their new schoolmarm and the town's Tonkawa Indian. In "South of Mariposa Springs," Rick Meyers tries to out-distance the posse on a worn-out horse. His jilted girlfriend takes three fresh horses and goes after him. "The Ridge Rider" is about two ex-soldiers who dare to seek gold in the Black Hills, under the noses of an aroused Sioux nation. "No Reason to Die" has two men and the woman they both love fleeing California, until they are overtaken in a New Mexico villa. "Rosa's Getaway" is an excerpt from an upcoming novel. Stevens, the outlaw boss's segundo, and Rosa, the quartermaster's daughter, slip away from the gang's hideout in the Guadalupe Mountains. In the novella "Bitter Water," a greenhorn tracks a feared outlaw leader to his mountain lair. Will he discover that he has finally made the grade? Or will he come up short?