Rider of Death Valley (Fiction)

Death Valley was ominously named in the days of unmarked, poisonous water holes and resentful tribesmen.

When horse hunter Johnny Lightfoot rides into the hamlet of Mormon Lake, the valley becomes famed for the lost Breyfogle Mine and a legendary herd of golden mustangs that are led through the moonlit nights by a lovely, phantom-like girl. After Lightfoot clashes with Mormon Lake’s Val Brodie, a buyer of stolen horses, he matches his shabby mount against Brodie’s swift mare, covering his rival’s ante with a golden nugget won in some forgotten card game. When he wins the race, gold-crazy Frying Pan George, holding the stakes, shouts he’s found the lost mine and warns all away. Though guns are drawn, Brodie and Lightfoot have no intention of keeping off the land. The reader can trail an ever-mounting tale of suspense led on by one of the West’s great storytellers, Dane Coolidge.