A collection of four books by acclaimed Black Horse Western Author Paul Bedford.
The Iron Horse: Josiah Wakefield and Dan Sturgis are young civil war veterans, employed in the Territory of Nebraska by the Union Pacific Railroad to hunt down the hired gunmen who are wrecking their supply trains. As robbery is clearly not the motive, someone must be trying to slow up the railroad's westward progress. After a vicious firefight on the trackless plains, their continued pursuit takes them to the dissolute city of Omaha where, in the company of their new acquaintance, Bill Hickok, they survive an ambush by some paid assassins. Their trouble is only just beginning, and they are to face deadly city marshal, Deke Pritchett, and the perils of being on board an Iron Horse, before a momentous finale. But just whose side is Bill Hickok really on?
Pistolero: In the summer of 1872 a deadly pistolero, Brett Dalton, is hired to assassinate President Ulysses S. Grant as he embarks on a re-election campaign across the western states. The president will be travelling via the Union Pacific Railroad, and when his locomotive stops to take on water at an isolated pumping station on the Nebraska/Wyoming border the lethal plot will be launched. With hostile Sioux Indians also planning to attack the train, it is up to Thaddeus McEvoy, a special investigator in the newly formed Department of Justice, to save Grant's life. With Widower, Tatum Barklam, and his beautiful daughter, Sarah, are used to a predictable life at the pumping station, but they are about to experience a very different pace when Dalton and his gang of desperadoes come thundering into their lives.
The Lawman: In 1885 a large band of half-breed Canadian rebels known as Metis, slip south over the border into Montana Territory. They carry with them a stolen Gatling gun and a strong desire to benefit, by any means, from the USA's wealth. Tough and experienced Deputy United States Marshal Jesse Bronson, is sent out to apprehend them. He is accompanied by a corporal of the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police. Bronson at first deeply resents the enforced presence of the red-coated Mountie and it is only after surviving numerous violent encounters that they finally begin to form a genuine bond. The fast moving tale encompasses a bloody confrontation in the gold mining camp of Alder Gulch, followed by a pursuit down the swollen Missouri River on log rafts and then onto a final momentous showdown in the town of Great Falls.
Taggart's Crossing: John Taggart and Jacob Stuckey are Civil War veterans who operate a ferry on the mighty Arkansas River. When two drifters pick on Jacob, Taggart ruthlessly disarms them and sends them on their way vowing revenge. But there is more trouble to come. Russ Decker and his gang steal a fortune in gold 'Double Eagles' from a bank in Wichita. Their escape route into the Indian Territories takes them by way of the ferry crossing. With a posse of Pinkerton Agents on their trail, he decides to stop the pursuit by putting John and Jacob out of business? permanently. Unknown to Decker and his men, a Deputy U S Marshal also has his sights on them, but the lawman first has to deliver a particularly unpleasant prisoner to Fort Smith. In addition to all of this, fate decrees that a keelboat full of stolen silver ore will arrive at Taggart's Crossing just at the right moment to create maximum havoc.
