Ride the Hot Wind — Lewis B. Patten

Arroyo Blanco County was a powder keg of bottled-up resentment and potential murder. The scorching sun and deadly drought were felling the cattle like flies and, very soon now, Adam Guthrie was going to foreclose on the bedeviled ranchers. One man stood between Guthrie and the swelling tide of lynch-crazy ranchers: Sheriff Frank Kilburn. Kilburn had put Guthrie in protective custody, but now the mob was gathering outside the jail. Kilburn could hear them - buzzing angrily at first, then raising their voices into a chorus of hate. Frank Kilburn steeled himself for a showdown. In his throat was the bitter acid of fear, was he to die or was a miracle to happen?