A master of the pulp western formula—good guys, bad guys, barmaids, fistfights, gunplay, double-crosses and frontier justice (i.e., pumping the bad guys full of holes)—Cushman delivers in these four novellas, originally published between 1946 and 1949. In Reckoning at Robber's Roost, a mysterious highwayman, with a surprise for everyone, tangles with a local tycoon, a corrupt sheriff and a gang of bandits who don't take kindly to competition. The Gambler's Code finds notorious gambler Shanghai Nivens in Alaska thinking he's inherited a bank, only to find he's heir to nothing but trouble: a girl, a gunman, a lynch mob and more looking to instigate a permanent bank holiday. The Craft of Ka-yip is the smart tale of an old Indian foiling an owlhoot gang's steamboat robbery, using a dangerous but clever ruse.
