For a brave band of Texas pioneers, new enemies awaited on the thundering trail. But old enemies were the deadliest of all.

The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-making trail drives.

The Dodge City Trail

Dodge City was a businessman's dream. And a cattle drive north-with thousands of unbranded longhorns and a remuda of stolen Mexican horses-was a dream of Texans like Dan Ember, who'd come home from the war to find a rich man's hired guns living on his land. Now Dan and his neighbors would risk everything on a drive across the Llano. Along the way, two bands of killers would fight over them, the gunslinger Clay Allison would join up with them, and Quanah Parker's Comanches would try to thwart them-in a bold adventure fueled by the courage to face death, the pride to keep going, and the knowledge that now, there was no turning back.

In the summer of 1872, Daniel Ember and his Texas neighbors take to the trail with 10,000 head of longhorn cattle. His arch rival hits the trail with a herd of his own, accompanied by hired outlaws. Besides the stampedes, Indian attacks, and bad river crossings, Ember's outfit faces a continual threat by his rival's killers. Original.