Lumber and Hombres — W.L. Cox

The Hunt-U.S. Marshal series continues as Hunt meets a deputy sheriff from Amarillo in his office that has tracked three killers to Denver and is asking Hunt for help. Hunt assigns four of his best deputies to assist the deputy, and their journey takes them across Colorado to New Mexico. The men aren't hard to follow; they leave dead people wherever they happen to go. Cindy's uncle from Tennessee shows up, and Beth is determined not to let Cindy go. The meeting of Cindy's uncle ends with a surprising twist. Hunt's gold stash accumulation finally allows him the money to begin construction at his Hidden Valley Ranch, and his chance meeting with a man in the saloon develops a lasting relationship and allows Hunt to start a logging business on the side. Hunt leads his deputies as they track two men that shot Sheriff Collins in the back, two men that refuse to be taken alive. Clayton, Earl, and Horse are sent to Utah to find two men that have robbed three banks and have left four people dead. After tracking the men for several hundred miles, they finally encounter the two men in a deadly shootout, and both Clayton and Earl are wounded. Hunt once again leads his men when they receive word that a man and woman were murdered and robbed of $86.15. Hunt tracks the men despite the almost impossible task of following their trail on a well-traveled road. Hunt is tormented when one of the men they arrest for the murder turns out to be a 15-year old well-mannered and scared young man, and approaches the judge in an effort to save the boy from the hangman's noose.