Piccadilly Publishing / The Cattlemen Western series Massacre Basin by Brian Garfield

THE CATTLEMEN 4: THE ARIZONANS by BRIAN GARFIELD

THE STORY

Since the end of the War of Rebellion, Eric Stratemeier thought he had put his past behind him for good. He came to the Arizona high country as the new owner of the embattled Hatchet outfit, boss to a dozen men and ten thousand cattle. But there his past was waiting for him, along with a passel of angry men who wanted the rich Hatchet spread for themselves. Stratemeier stood alone, with no law to back him, no secrets to shield him - with sudden death breathing down his neck.

Extract of the Author's Note

THE LONG HISTORY of Arizona is penned in considerable blood, beginning in water wars between Indian villages of a thousand years ago and flowing on past the abortive invasions of armored conquistadores. While the Union fought the Confederacy, Arizona was fighting Indians; while the Secret Order of the Knights of Labor fought Eastern railroads, in Arizona the Earps fought the Clantons and John Slaughter shotgunned a finish to the job of cleaning up Tombstone. The Hashknife outfit fought off the sheepmen and rustlers (almost synonymously evil in the terms of the times), and peace officers from Fred White to Ben McKinney chased villains from the Apache Kid to John Dillinger and beyond.

Pearl Hart and Big Nose Kate Fisher (or Elder - take your pick); Doc Holliday and Buckskin Frank Leslie; Curly Bill Graham (or Brocious) and the McLowery brothers, Frank and Tom; Burt Alvord and silk-tongued John Ringo; the train-robbing Smith brothers (who rustled Hashknife cattle for a pastime between train jobs) and murdering Augustin Chacon; bandit Billy Stiles, who shot his jailer, and smiling Frank Stillwell, who shot almost anyone (including Morgan Earp) for money; renegade bronco Mexican, Anglo, Indian, and half-breed highwaymen and thugs - the Boot Hills of Arizona are thickly enough populated with gentlemen who came to rape her.

But these were not our heroes. Our heroes are the thousands of often forgotten solid men and women, sodbusters and cattlemen and singlejack miners, pioneer merchants and editors, housewives and senators and laborers. Our heroes came from European backgrounds of established civilization and order and rolled up their sleeves to build a great new land with fist and rope and hoe and gingham. They worked on, surrounded by toughs who were not heroes, toughs who came from the same stock of Europe, but came forward using the wilderness land and its rawness as excuses to regress to brutality and savagery, to prey on the peaceful heroes of the land who were hampered in action by conscience and scruples and chose to remain so hampered. Our heroes went on with business as usual in a most unusual world.

OTHER DETAILS

Price: 1.99 USD - Prices may vary by region and retailer
Publication date: 01 July 2021
Originally Published: 1961

THE CATTLEMEN 4: THE ARIZONANS by BRIAN GARFIELD

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