Dramatized Adaptation Western

Original story published in Lariat story magazine - July 1947.

For Frank Morgan, a reunion with his estranged son brings back bittersweet memories of another time and place. Conrad Morgan is an Eastern businessman trying to build a railroad through an untamed corner of New Mexico Territory. Even though Frank has revenge-hungry killers on his trail, his kin needs him now. So with a gun-toting, hard-loving beauty named Rebel by their side, father and son ride straight into a pitched battle with hired killers and furious Apache warriors. It’s a firestorm more treacherous and evil than Frank Morgan has ever faced.

A visionary has a dream: to drive a railroad across the North American continent and through the vast Canadian Rockies. A thousand miles of rugged land stand in the way. So do hostile Indian tribes and outlaws who the see the railroad - and the men building it - as easy prey. But the project has a guardian angel of its own...Smoke Jensen. Smoke knows that this is one job he can’t do himself, so he heads to Canada with some hard-fighting mountain men from the Colorado Rockies at his side. By the time the railroad passes through Vancouver, Smoke needs every gun he can get.

Conrad Browning is The Loner, a man on a mission, crossing the country — and crossing a lot of bad men — to rescue his kidnapped young twins. The trail has led him all the way to San Francisco’s perilous red light-district, where a crime lord is the proud father of newly adopted twins. The Loner knows his children when he sees them. But they’re hostage to a brutal, violent mob feud. Then, just when he needs it most, The Loner is no longer alone: He is joined by his own father, Frank Morgan — the most notorious gunman in the West.

After the liberation of Front Royal from the Magus’ tyranny, Ryan Cawdor and his companions grieve the heart-wrenching loss of loved ones, but must carry on. Ryan and his surviving friends assume leadership roles in Front Royal, contributing to the rebuilding of the ville and the struggle to carve out a future for the beleaguered community. Ryan must learn how to be a good father for his unique baby daughter, and with the support of his larger family do his best to help her navigate the treacherous future that is her destiny.

Falcon MacCallister's father, Jamie Ian, was a legend in the West, but Falcon's quest for justice has driven him onto what many consider the wild side of the law. Famed as a gunslinger, feared for his lethal speed and accuracy, Falcon decides to make it a fair fight when he comes upon a man being attacked by a bandit gang in the Dakota Territory. The man is Teddy Roosevelt, the original Rough Rider himself. Soon Falcon and Teddy are entangled in a web of robbery, kidnapping and murder that will lead to Falcon's trial on manslaughter charges.

The Oklahoma Panhandle is 100 miles of lawlessness and danger: a no-man's-land designed to separate Texas from pro-Union Kansas. Through this desolate strip rides legendary gunslinger Falcon MacCallister with a 12-year-old Indian boy by his side. Behind them lies a scene of horror left by outlaws who've massacred the boy's parents, as well as the settlers in a small wagon train.

Some people don't know when to leave bad enough alone. Just when it seemed that Smoke Jensen's life had settled down to something resembling normal, he'd all but forgotten the vicious young gunfighter who called himself Sundance. Smoke had hoped to teach that twisted kid a lesson by shooting off his ear. But the lesson didn't take. Now, after years on the run, Sundance's hunger for revenge has pushed him over the edge.

Frank Morgan has one son he knows of - and Kid Morgan has become famous in his own right. But in Montana, Frank comes face-to-face with a young man with a deadly swagger and a stunning claim: that he's Frank's son, too. And he's here to gun his old man down. For Frank, the first thing to do is find out if Brady Morgan is truly his own flesh and blood. That means tracking down a woman he once loved, and then untangling her lies, lust and a scheme to steal prime Montana ranch land.

Building a ranching empire is one thing - keeping it out of the hands of robbers, kidnappers, murderers, embezzlers, and every no good opportunist crawling through the Arizona desert is a daily grind for Chet Byrnes. He’s just as likely to rescue a stolen daughter as he is to recover rustled cattle on any given day. But with a family to keep safe and enough real target practice to keep his aim deadly, nothing’s going to stop Chet from bringing his ranch into a bold new era.

Smoke Jensen never wanted to kill, but fate had other plans, and the Mountain Man has left plenty of blood, tears and fury in his wake. Angus MacDougal, the father of one of Smoke’s victims, wants revenge. Riding up to Big Rock, Colorado, MacDougal has decided that killing Smoke won’t be enough. He intends to bring him back to Pueblo and hang him before a crowd. It’s a bloodthirsty plan that might have worked, except for a beautiful young woman, and the small knife she slips into Smoke’s hand.

Now a deputy US Marshal, Chet Byrnes hunts down the baddest hombres the west can throw at him. Chet and his crew must travel to New Mexico to free his cousin J.D. from a corrupt sheriff and his band of deputies. New allies will emerge to help Chet as he squares off with his greatest challenge yet; stopping bandits along the Arizona-Mexico border. Friendship will carry Chet across the Mexican border into a land where the only justice is found at the end of a six-gun.

Purgatory, Arizona, is the last place you'll ever cross the law. Because in this town, the law is the personal fiefdom of an evil man - as Matt Jensen discovered on his first day in town, when an unavoidable gunfight and a dead deputy landed him in jail, sentenced to hang at Yuma Prison. But when the train from Purgatory to Yuma is violently derailed, Matt is set free amidst the carnage - with a choice to make. He can run for his life and live like an outlaw or take a chance with the determined U.S. Marshall who must hunt him down.

In a saloon north of El Paso, the legendary Doc Holliday is forced to kill a rancher's son in self defense. His father, Colonel Robert McHenry, is desperate for revenge. And now Doc is a hunted man on the run. Heading west, he turns to Jacob O'Brien, hoping to find refuge at the family ranch. Jacob knows it's a lose-lose situation — one that's bound to end in violence and blood. Colonel McHenry is the famous "Lion of Lynchburg," whose relentless courage in the Civil War earned the respect of fighting men everywhere.

Snake Creek is a shabby little Texas town ruled by a mean-tempered outlaw who fancies himself a king — King Petty. He and his gang do what they want, when they want, and right now what Petty wants is the pretty wife of a farmer he just shot in cold blood. But Sam Two Wolves just can't stand by and watch as this King Petty drags the widow down the street and before long he and Matt find themselves in the fight of their lives. It's a fight they never meant to start, but they sure as hell are going to finish it.

What the vicious Utah Jack Grubbs would really kill for just rode into town: Smoke Jensen...and a small fortune in rawhide. As if that wasn't trouble enough, Chief Iron Claw's bloodthirsty Cheyenne warriors have just appeared on the horizon. It isn't long before a war between the white man's greed and the red man's savagery turns the peaceful Bighorn Mountains into a simmering powder keg...and Smoke Jensen is just the man to set off the explosion.

Nursing a bitter hatred for Smoke Jensen, the man responsible for landing them in Yuma Territorial Prison, Olin Buckner, Ralph Tinsdale, and twisted archenemy Victor Spectre manage to escape and rally an army of gunslingers and cutthroats for the purpose of getting even. And their first act is to kidnap Sally, Smoke Jensen's wife.

When a farmer's wife is murdered, an innocent man is accused: Patrick O'Brien. The book-loving brother had shared his love of literature with the woman, but her husband claims she spurned Pat's advances and that's why he killed her. Now it looks like Patrick will swing from the gallows - especially after his lawyer is targeted, too.

He is brave, tough as leather, and has left behind a trail of deadly enemies - outlaws he's hunted down or killed with the cold heart of a man used to violence. A feared bounty hunter and the scourge of bad men everywhere, Flintlock carries an ancient Hawken muzzle-loader, handed down to him from the mountain man who raised him. He stands as the towering hero of a new Johnstone saga.

At the Sugarloaf Ranch, Smoke and Sally Jensen prepare to welcome Preacher home for the holidays — unaware that their friend is trailed by a storm full of trouble. On a mission of vengeance, an old trapper is rescued by Ace and Chance Jensen from ruthless outlaws — and wanted by a driven bounty hunter named Luke Jensen.