Hurd's Crossing

Here in one volume are two book-length Western novels by the masterful Lauran Paine. "Hidden Valley" concerns what John Flores, a rider for the Rafter S, calls the "ghost country," a plateau with a big bowl about thirty miles long and maybe ten miles broad in which is hidden a herd of buffalo. Arch Sutherland, owner of the Rafter S, and a number of the Rafter S cowhands have never seen a buffalo. But it isn't curiosity alone that prompts Arch to head toward the mysterious region with three of his wranglers. The immediate cause is tracks they discover, probably belonging to hunters, heading in that direction. What Arch doesn't know is that these hunters are killers and horse thieves who well know what to do about anyone found on their trail. "Hurd's Crossing" is the name of a town located some distance from Fort Jackson. Three merchants from Hurd's Crossing come to see Colonel Cross at the fort, complaining that their town is being terrorized by Emmett Roberts and his gang. Since the last three town marshals in Hurd's Crossing have all ended up dead, the colonel will send Captain Sam Bennington, a man who had once served the Confederacy and then worked in law enforcement before joining the U. S. Army. After all, there are only eight men in the gang, counting Roberts. Sam Bennington now will be one man against eight and heading into a job in which no one has survived.


Genre: Western