The Smoky Years — Alan Le May

LAND WAR!

They were the titans of the plains, the men who carved an empire out of the vast expanses of the West. The cattle barons. They were tough, weathered men like Dusty King and Lew Gordon, who had sweated and worked along the great cattle trails to form a partnership whose brand was burned on herds beyond measure. They had fought hard for what they had…and they would fight even harder to keep it.

And they knew a fight was coming. It was as thick in the wind as trail dust. Newcomers like Ben Thorpe were moving in, desperate to get their hands on the miles and miles of grazing land—land that King and Gordon wanted, and that Thorpe needed to survive. No one knew how the war would end, but one thing was certain—only one empire could survive.