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     Table of Contents  Also by Title Page  Copyright Page PROLOGUE CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 CHAPTER 32 CHAPTER 33 CHAPTER 34 CHAPTER 35 CHAPTER 36 CHAPTER 37 CHAPTER 38 CHAPTER 39 CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER 41 CHAPTER 42 CHAPTER 43 CHAPTER 44 CHAPTER 45 CHAPTER 46 EPILOGUE Teaser chapter      Look for these exciting Western series from bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone   The Mountain Man  Luke Jensen: Bounty Hunter  Brannigan’s Land  The Jensen Brand  Preacher and MacCallister  The Red Ryan Westerns  Perley Gates  Have Brides, Will Travel  Guns of the Vigilantes  Shotgun Johnny  The Chuckwagon Trail  The Jackals  The Slash and Pecos Westerns  The Texas Moonshiners  Stoneface Finnegan Westerns  Ben Savage: Saloon Ranger  The Buck Trammel Westerns  The Death and Texas Westerns  The Hunter Buchanon Westerns  Tinhorn  Will Tanner: U.S. Deputy Marshal     William W. Johnstone is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over three hundred books, including the bestselling series Smoke Jensen: The Mountain Man, Preacher: The First Mountain Man, Flintlock, MacCallister, and Will Tanner: U.S. Deputy Marshal, and the stand-alone thrillers Black Friday, Tyranny, and Stand Your Ground.   Being the all-around assistant, typist, researcher, and fact-checker to one of the most popular Western authors of all time, J.A. Johnstone learned from the master, Uncle William W. Johnstone.   He began tutoring J.A. at an early age. After-school hours were often spent retyping manuscripts or researching his massive American Western history library as well as the more modern wars and conflicts. J.A. worked hard—and learned.   “Every day with Bill was an adventure story in itself. Bill taught me all he could about the art of storytelling.‘Keep the historical facts accurate,’ he would say. ‘Remember the readers, and as your grandfather once told me, I am telling you now: be the best J.A. Johnstone you can be.’”   Visit the website at www.williamjohnstone.net.  EPILOGUE  From The Emigrant City Weekly Clarion & Light  STATE NEWS  The Austin Sympathizer reports in last Wednesday’s edition that R. Aberbach, new Superintendent of Prisons, is closing the Peering Farm, located at the southeastern edge of the Eroded Plains. Budget cuts are cited as the reason, plus the extreme location of Peter Peering’s cotton operation, and difficulty in finding guards willing to work in such a remote region. The price of telegraphs, sending, receiving, and repairing, was also mentioned.  Mr. Aberbach replaces the previous superintendent who was relieved of his duties for “personal matters,” the governor has said. The Sympathizer’s diligent editor is trying to learn the details of those “personal matters.”  From the El Paso Independent, we learn that the notorious band of Warm  Springs Apaches led by Chief Dog Heart was turned back in a skirmish at Rattlesnake Ridge. An army patrol led by a Lieutenant Grimsley is said to have come across the Apaches and engaged them in a running battle that lasted over 36 hours. Two Apaches were killed, according to the report, and Dog Heart himself was injured. The cavalry suffered two minor injuries. Cheers all around to the brave boys at Fort Spalding near Purgatory City. Residents of Waco had the honor and privilege of taking in a three-day engagement at the Brazos River Opera House of a show featuring the latest “sharpshooter” of the Lone Star State. Yes, the Citizen Banner sends word that Mrs. Aoife O’Leary, who claimed the $1,500 reward for bringing in fiendish brigand Cullen Brice to the Mobeetie Texas Rangers with a clean bullet wound to his heart. (That led to our governor shaming that Rangers regiment and removing its captain, who never came close to capturing that villain and his associates.)  The plainspoken widow won the crowd over with her straightforward manner, with song and dance numbers by her precocious twin sons, Darnell and Danny. The act also including a sobering lecture from two former ladies of ill repute, one Dame Mae Nilsson and Pegleg Greta, titled “The Evils of the Flesh and What Life Has Taught Us.”  We have hopes that we will be able to land this “hot” ticket after they have finished touring the dime museums in Chicago, New York, and Boston.  Speaking of outlaws, Boss Linden has disappeared, according to the Mobeetie Register. In fact, there has been no sign of Comanchero activity in months. Rumor has it, the Register opines, that Boss has retired to Veracruz.  That scoundrel Linden is not the only person to have vanished in the Southwest. The Santa Fe Journal notes that Don Salbatore Gandullo of the territorial capital, Judge Livingston Langley of Mesilla, and Dario Packmor from Taos have fled the territory, most likely jumping ahead of indictments expected to be handed out by a special investigator from Washington City. They were said to have been traveling to Texas on business, but there have been no sightings of them in Dallas, Fort Worth, Brownsville or Jefferson. Perhaps they decided to take in the waters at Veracruz, as the Journal points out that they were often linked to Boss Linden.  Perhaps Colorado cattleman Bob “Bear” Mannix went with them. The Denver Crier says he has “vamoosed,” too.  Pity, say several Texas cattlemen, according to the Fort Worth Times & Standard. Many Lone Star ranchers have for years blamed the Purgatoire River rancher of showing questionable bills of sale for most longhorns wearing his brand. “Where is Black