Law at Angel's Landing: A Western Story

Angel's Landing was the mining town that grew up around a gold strike made on Banjo Creek in the hills of Colorado. During the boom period there were as many as 5,000 people in Angel's Landing, but that was long ago and now the town has shrunk to its present small size. Mark Girard was a young boy during the boom period and he was a witness to what happened when the boom played out. His father had moved on, searching for his own chance at finding sudden wealth by discovering gold in a more likely place. Mark's mother had refused to leave. It was when Mark's mother was dying from infirmities that his father had returned, in time to be with her at the end. He had aged beyond his years, but as he confided to Mark, after Mark's mother died, he had struck it rich, even though he was too stove up to do more than to sell out to a mining syndicate. Now he himself was dying and he gave what money he had to Mark, enough for Mark to put some money in the bank and acquire the local livery stable. It was a simple, quiet life that he led, but Mark and the others - Kirk Bailey who owned the Mercantile, Joe Steele who owned the hotel, Rip Yager, the oldest, who owned the remaining saloon, and Doc Jenner - preferred it to the wild boom times. When the job as sheriff for Bremer County opened, Mark ran for the office and won. It was a relatively easy job, being concerned only with rowdy drunks. Then the worst thing that could happen did happen. There was a new gold strike on Banjo Creek and everyone realized that the boom days would return. Brawling lawbreakers would return, and the question became whether or not Mark could ever handle them. Wayne D. Overholser won three Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America and has a long list of fine Western titles to his credit.