About this ebook
MAN IN THE SADDLE—He fought his way back from hell—alone!
The combine drove Owen Merritt from his land, branding him a coward and a killer while forcing him into hiding. But they had made one drastic, fatal mistake: they had forgotten to kill him!
HIGH TRAILS AND FAST HORSES
It was the gray first-dawn, and Owen Merritt was off the trail, halted on the edge of timber. Ahead of him stood the cabin where the Skull outfit's chuck-wagon crew still slept. He dropped from the saddle and drew his rifle from its boot.
There would be five or six men in the cabin and in another fifteen minutes they would be stirring. Merritt steadied his rifle against the side of a small pine, knowing what he had to do. When he pulled the trigger of the Winchester he said goodbye to the flat country. It would be high trails and fast horses, beans and bacon over a quick campfire, and fade away.
He took aim on the high corner of the cabin window and let go.
BOUGH COUNTRY-BLOODTHIRSTY MEN
The combine was too big for Owen Merritt—too powerful and too ruthless. They drove him off his land. They branded him coward and killer. Then they shamed him before the only woman he ever wanted. So he went into hiding. The only thing was that he couldn't get rid of the disgrace that lodged in his gut. Or the hunger for the vast cattle lands he had lost. With no choice Owen Merritt went back, because those scum had made one drastic mistake: they forgot to kill him!
ERNEST HAYCOX IS ONE OF THE GIANTS IN THE WESTERN GENRE, RANKING WITH BESTSELLING AUTHORS LOUIS L'AMOUR AND ZANE GREY.
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About the author
Ernest James Haycox (October 1, 1899 - October 13, 1950) was an American author of Western fiction.
Born in Portland, Oregon, to William James Haycox and the former Martha Burghardt, he attended local schools of both Washington state and Oregon. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1915 and was stationed along the Mexican border in 1916. During World War I he served in Europe, and after the war he spent one year at Reed College in Portland. In 1923, he graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. He married Jill M. Chord in 1925 and the couple had two children.
Haycox published two dozen novels and around 300 short stories, many of which appeared first in pulp magazines in the early 1920s. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was a regular contributor to Collier's Weekly from 1931 and The Saturday Evening Post from 1943. Fans of his work included Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway.
His story Stage to Lordsburg (1937) was made into the movie Stagecoach (1939), directed by John Ford and featuring John Wayne in the role that made him a star. The novel Trouble Shooter (1936), originally serialized in Collier's, was the basis for the movie Union Pacific (1939), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. Haycox wrote the screenplay for Montana (1950), directed by Ray Enright, which stars Alexis Smith and Errol Flynn.
Haycox died in 1950, at the age of 51, in Portland. In 2005 the Western Writers of America voted Haycox one of the 24 best Western authors of the Twentieth Century.
