The Dark Border: A Western Quartet

"Brand of the Bear Flag Mutineers" chronicles a bitter and bloody confrontation between U.S. soldiers and Secessionist troops in California's rugged San Bernardino Mountains during the Civil War. In "The Dark Border," a pair of adventurous cowmen wins a hardscrabble ranch in a dice game in the south Texas badlands. Their subsequent involvement with a man involved in the illegal running of cattle across the Mexican border leads to hard lessons learned for both. A white man's marriage to a half-breed Cherokee woman is the main ingredient for "Chivaree." While Jim wants to force others to accept Nettie, she asks that he let her earn their respect for herself. "Blood on the Bozeman Trail" is the tale of a freight-line owner beset by trouble from cut-throat competitors, Indian raiding parties, and other hazards during a trek along the Bozeman Trail from Cheyenne to the Montana border.
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