Blood on the Grass

FRONTIER JUSTICE

One of the recurring themes of Lewis B. Patten’s work has long been justice, or, more often than not, the lack of it. Here are two powerful tales of law and order in the Old West. In “Blood on the Grass,” Barton Pruitt returns to Arapahoe, intent on taking up ranching on what had been his father’s spread. But that doesn’t sit well with the giant Spur cattle ranch, and the local sheriff certainly isn’t going to take Burton’s side. The ranching community below the haunting Black Mesa in Arizona Territory is the setting for “Sharpshod.” Will Counselman was taken in as a young boy and raised by rancher Laird McFetridge, but their relationship was always a hostile one. When McFetridge is found dead, it looks like no one had a motive to kill him—except Will.