The Last Gun — Lauran Paine

This duo combines two new book-length novels by Lauran Paine, one of the great authors of unforgettable Western fiction.
In Ghost Meadow, there has been rustling going on at Fort Laramie. There are those in the command who are convinced that it is the work of Indians. A prime suspect is John Morning Gun, a fort scout, a man who looks to be a full-blood but is actually the son of a French voyageur and a Crow woman, orphaned when young. Pete Burdette, a trader, is elected to guide the patrol in pursuit of the Indians and cattle stock. Lieutenant Albert Winthrop is charged to lead the patrol, but he is convinced that the theft was not committed by Indians at all. Sergeant Flannery is equally convinced, but orders are to be followed, and John Morning Gun is to remain at the fort until the question about theft has been resolved. Yet it is Morning Gun who will play a decisive part in its resolution. Sheriff Tom Logan in The Last Gun has to follow the order of the judge and hang Old Man Barton for murder. Barton, an old frontiersman who befriended many of the young people in Winchester Junction, had shot a man he claimed was a horse thief, but the alleged thief was the son of a rich and powerful rancher and the bullet that killed him was in the back. The sheriff and even most of the jurors and townsmen are troubled by the execution, only to be set further on edge when a man, highly capable with his fists and his gun, appears in town determined to prove that Old Man Barton was innocent of the crime for which he was hanged and intends to settle the score.