Savage Country

by William W. Johnstone

  Mule fritters, I say. Nowadays, you can’t even call a punk a punk anymore. But don’t get me started.

  It was, “Howdy, ma’am” time too. The good guys, antihero or not, were always respectful to the ladies. They might shoot a bad guy five seconds after tipping their hat to a woman, but the code of the West demanded you be respectful to a lady.

  Lots of things have changed since the heyday of the Wild West, haven’t they? Some for the good, some for the bad.

  I didn’t have any idea at the time that I would someday write about the West. I just knew that I was captivated by the Old West.

  When I first got the itch to write, back in the early 1970s, I didn’t write Westerns. I started by writing horror and action adventure novels. After more than two dozen novels, I began thinking about developing a Western character. From those initial musings came the novel The Last Mountain Man: Smoke Jensen. That was followed by Preacher: The First Mountain Man. A few years later, I began developing the Last Gunfighter series. Frank Morgan is a legend in his own time, the fastest gun west of the Mississippi . . . a title and a reputation he never wanted, but can’t get rid of.

  The Gunfighter series is set in the waning days of the Wild West. Frank Morgan is out of time and place, but still, he is pursued by men who want to earn a reputation as the man who killed the legendary gunfighter. All Frank wants to do is live in peace. But he knows in his heart that dream will always be just that: a dream, fog and smoke and mirrors, something elusive that will never really come to fruition. He will be forced to wander the West, alone, until one day his luck runs out.

  For me, and for thousands—probably millions—of other people (although many will never publicly admit it), the old Wild West will always be a magic, mysterious place: a place we love to visit through the pages of books; characters we would like to know . . . from a safe distance; events we would love to take part in, again, from a safe distance. For the old Wild West was not a place for the faint of heart. It was a hard, tough, physically demanding time. There were no police to call if one faced adversity. One faced trouble alone, and handled it alone. It was rugged individualism: something that appeals to many of us.

  I am certain that is something that appeals to most readers of Westerns.

  I still do on-site research (whenever possible) before starting a Western novel. I have wandered over much of the West, prowling what is left of ghost towns. Stand in the midst of the ruins of these old towns, use a little bit of imagination, and one can conjure up life as it used to be in the Wild West. The rowdy Saturday nights, the tinkling of a piano in a saloon, the laughter of cowboys and miners letting off steam after a week of hard work. Use a little more imagination and one can envision two men standing in the street, facing one another, seconds before the hook and draw of a gunfight. A moment later, one is dead and the other rides away.

  The old wild untamed West.

  There are still some ghost towns to visit, but they are rapidly vanishing as time and the elements take their toll. If you want to see them, make plans to do so as soon as possible, for in a few years, they will all be gone.

  And so will we.

  Stand in what is left of the Big Thicket country of east Texas and try to imagine how in the world the pioneers managed to get through that wild tangle. I have wondered about that many times and marveled at the courage of the men and women who slowly pushed westward, facing dangers that we can only imagine.

  Let me touch briefly on a subject that is very close to me: firearms. There are some so-called historians who are now claiming that firearms played only a very insignificant part in the settlers’ lives. They claim that only a few were armed. What utter, stupid nonsense! What do these so-called historians think the pioneers did for food? Do they think the early settlers rode down to the nearest supermarket and bought their meat? Or maybe they think the settlers chased down deer or buffalo on foot and beat the animals to death with a club. I have a news flash for you so-called historians: The settlers used guns to shoot their game. They used guns to defend hearth and home against Indians on the warpath. They used guns to protect themselves from outlaws. Guns are a part of Americana. And always will be.

  The mountains of the West and the remains of the ghost towns that dot those areas are some of my favorite subjects to write about. I have done extensive research on the various mountain ranges of the West and go back whenever time permits. I sometimes stand surrounded by the towering mountains and wonder how in the world the pioneers ever made it through. As hard as I try and as often as I try, I simply cannot imagine the hardships those men and women endured over the hard months of their incredible journey. None of us can. It is said that on the Oregon Trail alone, there are at least two bodies in lonely, unmarked graves for every mile of that journey. Some students of the West say the number of dead is at least twice that. And nobody knows the exact number of wagons that impatiently started out alone and simply vanished on the way, along with their occupants, never to be seen or heard from again.

  Just vanished.

  The one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old ruts of the wagon wheels can still be seen in various places along the Oregon Trail. But if you plan to visit those places, do so quickly, for they are slowly disappearing. And when they are gone, they will be lost forever, except in the words of Western writers.

  As long as I can peck away at a keyboard and find a company to publish my work, I will not let the Old West die. That I promise you.

  As The Drifter in the Last Gunfighter series, Frank Morgan has struck a responsive chord among the readers of frontier fiction. Perhaps it’s because he is a human man, with all of the human frailties. He is not a superhero. He likes horses and dogs and treats them well. He has feelings and isn’t afraid to show them or admit that he has them. He longs for a permanent home, a place to hang his hat and sit on the porch in the late afternoon and watch the day slowly fade into night . . . and a woman to share those simple pleasures with him. But Frank also knows he can never relax his vigil and probably will never have that long-wished-for hearth and home. That is why he is called The Drifter. Frank Morgan knows there are men who will risk their lives to face him in a hook and draw, slap leather, pull that big iron, in the hopes of killing the West’s most famous gunfighter, so they can claim the title of the man who killed Frank Morgan, The Drifter. Frank would gladly, willingly, give them that title, but not at the expense of his own life.

  So Frank Morgan must constantly drift, staying on the lonely trails, those out-of-the-way paths through the timber, the mountains, the deserts that are sometimes called the hoot-owl trail. His companions are the sighing winds, the howling of wolves, the yapping of coyotes, and a few, very few, precious memories. And his six-gun. Always, his six-gun.

  Frank is also pursued by something else: progress. The towns are connected by telegraph wires. Frank is recognized wherever he goes and can be tracked by telegraphers. There is no escape for him. Reporters for various newspapers are always on his trail, wanting to interview Frank Morgan, as are authors, wanting to do more books about the legendary gunfighter. Photographers want to take his picture, if possible with the body of a man Frank has just killed. Frank is disgusted by the whole thing and wants no part of it. There is no real rest for The Drifter. Frank travels on, always on the move. He tries to stay off the more heavily traveled roads, sticking to lesser-known trails, sometimes making his own route of travel, across the mountains or deserts.

  Someday perhaps Frank will find some peace. Maybe. But if he does, that is many books from now.

  The West will live on as long as there are writers willing to write about it, and publishers willing to publish it. Writing about the West is wide open, just like the old Wild West. Characters abound, as plentiful as the wide-open spaces, as colorful as a sunset on the Painted Desert, as restless as the ever-sighing winds. All one has to do is use a bit of imagination. Take a stroll through the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona; read the inscriptions. Then walk the main street of that once-infamous town ar
ound midnight and you might catch a glimpse of the ghosts that still wander the town. They really do. Just ask anyone who lives there. But don’t be afraid of the apparitions, they won’t hurt you. They’re just out for a quiet stroll.

  The West lives on. And as long as I am alive, it always will.

  SMOKE JENSEN RETURNS!

  Keep reading for a very special preview of

  Brutal Night of the Mountain Man

  Coming from Pinnacle, December 2016.

  Big Rock, Colorado

  Smoke, Pearlie, and Cal had left Smoke’s ranch, Sugarloaf, earlier this morning, pushing a herd of one hundred cows to the railhead in town. Shortly after they left, Sally had gone into town as well, but she had gone in a buckboard so she could make some purchases. Her shopping complete, she was now on Red Cliff Road halfway back home. The road made a curve about fifty yards ahead, and, for just an instant, she thought she saw the shadow of a man cast upon the ground. She had not seen anyone ahead of her, and the fact that no man materialized after the shadow put her on the alert. The average person would have paid no attention to the shadow, but one thing she had learned in all the years she had been married to Smoke was to always be vigilant.

  “I’ve made a lot of enemies in my life,” Smoke told her. “And some of them would do anything they could to get at me. And anyone who knows me also knows that the thing I fear most is the idea that you might be hurt because of me.”

  Smoke had also taught Sally how to use a gun, and she was an excellent student. She once demonstrated her skill with a pistol by entering a shooting contest with a young woman by the name of Phoebe Ann Mosey. The two women matched each other shot for shot, thrilling the audience with their skills, until, at the very last shot, Miss Mosey put a bullet half an inch closer to the center bull’s-eye than did Sally. It wasn’t until then that Sally learned the professional name of her opponent. It was Annie Oakley.

  Sally pulled her pistol from the holster and held it beside her.

  As the buckboard rounded the curve, a man jumped out into the road in front of her. His action startled the team of horses, and they reared up, causing her to have to pull back on the reins to get them back under control.

  Sally had not been surprised by the man’s sudden appearance, nor was the fact that he was holding a pistol in his hand unexpected.

  “Is this a holdup attempt?” Sally asked. “If so, I have very little money. As you can see by the bundles in the back I have been shopping, and I took only enough money for the purchases.”

  “Nah, this ain’t no holdup,” the man said. “You’re Smoke Jensen’s wife, ain’t ya?”

  “I’m proud to say that I am.”

  The man smiled, showing crooked, tobacco-stained teeth. “Then it don’t matter none whether you’ve got ’ny money or not, ’cause that ain’t what I’m after.”

  “What are you after?” Sally asked.

  “I’m after some payback,” the man said.

  “Payback?”

  “The name is Templeton. Adam Templeton. Does that name mean anythin’ to you?”

  “Would you be related to Deekus Templeton?”

  “Yeah. What do you know about ’im?”

  “I know that he took as hostage a very sweet young girl named Lucy Woodward, and held her for ransom.”

  “Yeah, he was my brother. I was in prison when your man killed him.”

  “Actually, it wasn’t Smoke who killed him, it was a young man by the name of Malcolm Puddle.”

  “It don’t make no never mind who it was, Jensen was there ’n as far as I’m concerned, it’s the same thing as him killin’ my brother.”

  “Why did you stop me?”

  “Why, I thought you knew, missy. I plan to kill you. I figure me killin’ you will get even with him.”

  “Will you allow me to step down from the buckboard before you shoot me?” Sally asked.

  Templeton was surprised by Sally’s strange reaction, not so much the question itself as the tone of her voice. She was showing absolutely no fear or nervousness.

  “What do you want to climb down for?”

  “I bought some material for a dress I’m going to make,” Sally said, “and I wouldn’t want to take a chance that I might bleed on it.”

  Templeton laughed. “You’re one strange woman, do you know that? What the hell difference would it make to you whether you bleed on it or not? You ain’t goin’ to be makin’ no damn dress, on account of because you’re a-goin’ to be dead.”

  “May I climb down?”

  “Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

  Holding her pistol in the folds of her dress, Sally climbed down from the buckboard, then turned to face Templeton.

  “Mr. Templeton, if you would put your gun away and ride off now, I won’t kill you,” Sally said. Again, the tone of her voice was conversational.

  “What? Are you crazy? I’m the one holdin’ the gun here. Now, say your prayers.”

  Suddenly, and totally unexpectedly, Sally raised her pistol and fired, the bullet plunging into Templeton’s chest. He got a look of total shock on his face, dropped his pistol, then, as his eyes rolled up in his head, collapsed onto the road.

  Cautiously, Sally walked over to look down at him.

  Templeton was dead.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  WILLIAM W. JOHNSTONE was the author of over 220 USA Today and New York Times bestselling books, including The First Mountain Man, MacCallister, Eagles, Savage Texas, Matt Jensen, The Last Mountain Man, The Family Jensen, and The Kerrigans: A Texas Dynasty, as well as the stand-alone thrillers Suicide Mission, The Bleeding Edge, Home Invasion, Stand Your Ground, and Tyranny.

  Visit his website at www.williamjohnstone.net.