Dutchman's Flat Stories [Paperback]

TURN HOME, RIDER
 
In this land, the place you leave behind might not be there when you get back. At least not the way you knew it. Tack Gentry of the G Bar, Chat Lock of Dutchman’s Flat, and Ward McQueen of the Tumbling K knew how it felt to struggle against men who were trying to take from them what they believed in. For the bad rush in when the good leave, and men will choose to fight, not just over drunken threats, gambling losses, and honor, but for land, friendships, family, and even love—a struggle magnificently captured in these eleven great stories written and handpicked by the incomparable Louis L’Amour himself.

Our foremost storyteller of the American West,Louis L’Amourhas thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and woman who settled the frontier. There are more than three hundred million copies of his books in print around the world.Author's Note

DUTCHMAN'S FLAT



EVERYTHING A MAN does is indication of his character, whether he cheats at cards or takes an unfair advantage because it is legal.

This was probably more evident in the West, where a man's actions were often starkly revealed. The population was sparse, and there was, literally, no place to hide.

Occasionally I have become so involved with the characters in a story that I hesitate to let them go, and "Dutchman's Flat" was such a story. As a result I took the same basic situation and extended the story, much later, into a novel called The Key-Lock Man. In another such case the short story "War Party" became Bendigo Shafter.

Characters can become very real to their author, and often it is difficult to abandon them. One wants to know more about them, about their lives after the story in question, and the only way to know is to let the story tell itself. The story of the people in "Dutchman's Flat" is as revealing of western character as any I have written.l£g