"End of the Drive" captures all the grit, grandeur, and glory of the men
and women who wielded pistol and plow, Bible and branding iron to tame a
wild country. Here a boy of seventeen, yearning to prove he's a man,
squares up against an outlaw...and discovers that what counts is not how
fast you can draw a gun but how much faith you have in yourself. A
veteran trail driver, who's faced lightning and hail, raiding Comanche
and thundering stampedes, finds that there's nothing quite so dangerous
as the courting of a beautiful woman
Here, too, in stories told with L'Amour's patented poignancy and power,
a homesteader fighting for his rights is brutally beaten and crawls off
to die...only to stumble upon an ancient talisman that restores his
faith and will to live. A preacher from a distant land rides into a
small frontier town with a voice full of fire and a saddlebag full of
miracles...to deliver a promise and a warning that lead the local folk
to a most surprising revelation. And in the full-length novella "Rustler
Roundup," the hardworking citizens of a law-abiding town are pushed to
the edge to defend all they hold dear. As suspicion spreads and evidence
mounts, the rumors of rustlers in their midst threaten to explode into a
full-blown range war
Each of these stories bears the master's touch--comic twists, stark
realism, crackling suspense--all the elements that have made Louis
L'Amour a frontier legend in his own right. In "End of the Drive,"
L'Amour brilliantly illuminates the dramatic struggles and enduring
truths, the self-reliance and self-determination that have long beat at
the heart of America's greatness.
