RIDERS OF THE SILENCES

Max Brand


1919





Prologue


The Great West, prior to the century's turn, abounded in legend.
Stories were told of fabled gunmen whose bullets always magically
found their mark, of mighty stallions whose tireless gallop rivaled
the speed of the wind, of glorious women whose beauty stunned mind and
heart. But nowhere in the vast spread of the mountain-desert country
was there a greater legend told than the story of Red Pierre and the
phantom gunfighter, McGurk.

These two men of the wilderness, so unalike, of widely-differing
backgrounds, had in common a single trait: each was unbeatable. Fate
brought them clashing together, thunder to thunder, lightning to
lightning. They were destined to meet at the crossroads of a long,
long trail ... a trail which began in the northern wastes of Canada
and led, finally, to a deadly confrontation in the mountains of the
Far West.