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Elmer Kelton of San Angelo, Texas is a native Texan and author of 50 Western novels. He has won many awards for his work and has been recognized as the Greatest Western Writer of all time by the Western Writers of America, Inc. He is the author of Forge’s Texas Ranger series.

Johnny Fristo and Speck Quitman, young, hard-working cowboys from Fort Concho, Texas, have worked six months—at $20 a month—on the Devil’s River. Their boss, a hawk-faced cow trader named Larramore, reneges on the money he owes the boys and sneaks out of the cow camp and heads for San Angelo.

Fristo is tall and thin, his mind a hundred miles away; Quitman is short, bandy-legged, and "bedazzled by the flash of cards and the slosh of whiskey." The two are as different as sun and moon but are inseparable—and now they have a mission: find Larramore and extract the money he owes them.