In 1873, when Reuben Lee arrived in the Wyoming Territory by train from Philadelphia, tired, hungry and virtually penniless, he had no idea that in a few short weeks he would be called "The Gunfighter."
In his own mind, Reuben was a failure. While his brother lay a hero on the field at Gettysburg, Reuben had spent the war years adding endless columns of figures. The small amount he embezzled barely bought him a coach class ticket to Morgan City WY. And in Morgan City, Reuben found clean white shirts and high starched collars were no substitute for calloused hands and a pair of sturdy work boots.
Ollie Swenson gave him a job, grudgingly. But then Ollie had begrudged everyone and everything since his wife died.
Selling otherwise worthless land to Ollie and his group of Swedish immigrants had seemed a good idea to Pontius Morgan at the time, but now their fences were ruining "his" grazing land. He offered to buy them out for ten cents on the dollar, and when they wouldn't sell, he turned to other methods of persuasion.
Reuben came out from hiding to drive off Morgan's hired killers. The news gave the other settlers backbone. And it made Morgan angry enough to send East for another dozen thugs.
The other characters in this book include ten-year old Arnold Jensen who portrays Mr. Lincoln in the school play, the widow Danielle Lemieux: she liked Reuben; so what if he were ten years younger, and Jake Flemming, a hell of a nice guy: he'd buy you a beer even if it was his job to gun you down.
