It was a "big country needing big men and women to live in it." Here are three more of his fine short stories about the West. West of the Tularosa Ruth Kermitt, owner of the Tumbling K ranch, made a deal with old Tom McCracken, owner of the Firebox spread, to buy his ranch. That's why the Tumbling K's foreman, Ward McQueen, and some of the Tumbling K crew have come to take possession. But in a deserted bunkhouse on the Firebox, they find the body of Jimmy McCracken, son of the former owner, who was clearly killed in a gunfight. Then, Sheriff Bill Foster shows up with a posse. Riding with that posse is Neal Webb, who claims that he owns the Firebox and that he's got a transfer deed signed by Jimmy McCracken conveying that ownership. Webb seizes the opportunity to accuse Ward McQueen and his men of killing McCracken in order to claim possession of the Firebox. Despite his innocence, McQueen sees that he will have a tough time staying out of jail long enough to discover who the real killers are. Home in the Valley Steve Mehan had accomplished what many had believed to be impossible. He had taken cattle from the home range in Nevada to California in the dead of winter. Not only that, he had been successful in selling them. Now the money from the sale is on deposit with the Dake & Company bank in Sacramento. That $24,000 will save all five ranches in Paiute Valley that had supplied cattle for the drive. Mehan is feeling good about all of this when, to his shock, he reads in the newspaper that Dake & Company has failed. And there is one nasty hombre who is mighty happy to hear this. He sneeringly tells Mehan that those ranchers have lost out and since they can't pay their debt--and he will become the new owner. But Mehan isn't ready to give up. There is a bank branch in Portland, Oregon, and if Mehan can get to it and withdraw the money before the steamer boat heading for Portland arrives with the news of the bank failure, he wins. To do that, Mehan will have to start out immediately, hoping for stamina, luck, and a long relay of good horses to cover those hundreds of miles. West Is Where the Heart Is Jim London is on his way home. During the four years of the War between the States, he has not been home, seen his wife, Jane, or been able to send word of his whereabouts. For all she knew, he was dead. Fellows have told him she wouldn't have waited for him, but London believes differently. Then, just two hundred miles from home, London comes across a burned-out wagon train. Nine wagons had been hit by the Comanches, and they left only a ruin behind: overturned wagons, dead livestock, ransacked belongings, and dead bodies strewn on the ground. Yet Jim discovers that not everyone is dead. He finds little Betty Jane, a five-year-old who had been able to hide successfully during the attack. The only thing to be done is for him to take her along with him. But during their journey, he discovers that the child knows something that no one else does.

    Unlikely associates, this cynical thief and idealist swordsman, were just learning how to work together as a team. In this standalone short story of The Riyria Chronicles, Royce is determined to teach his naive partner a lesson about good deeds. Join Royce and Hadrian in this short story (5,400 words).This is now a chapter in Ryria Chronicles # 2: The Rose and the Thorn, so for those looking to read the entire series in order, reading this short story on its own isn't necessary.

    Yet if evil is on the retreat, why are hordes of goblins and bloody-capped powries slashing their way ever-deeper into civilized lands? A sinister threat now looms over Corona, for the power of the demon dactyl was not entirely vanquished by the sacrifice of the monk Avelyn Desbris. Instead, its darkness has infiltrated the most sacred of places--as a once-admired spiritual leader rededicates his life to the most vicious, most insidious revenge against the forces of good. There may be no stopping the spread of the malignant evil.

    He is brilliant and strange, and every year something violent seems to happen to him. On his ninth birthday, Louis goes on a picnic with his parents and falls off a cliff. The details are shrouded in mystery. Louis's mother is shell-shocked; his father has vanished. And after some confusion Louis himself, miraculously alive but deep in a coma, arrives at Dr. Pascal Dannachet's celebrated coma clinic…Full of astonishing twists and turns, this is a masterful tale of the secrets the human mind can hide.

    Recommended reading lists and selected poetry complete the volume.Contents: * Summation 1988: Fantasy by Terri Windling * Summation 1988: Horror by Ellen Datlow * Horror and Fantasy on the Screen by Edward Bryant * Obituaries * Death is Different by Lisa Goldstein * The Tale of the Rose and the Nightingale (And What Came of It) by Gene Wolfe * It Was the Heat by Pat Cadigan * The Cutter by Edward Bryant * The Freezer Jesus by John DuFresne * Voices of the Kill by Thomas M. Disch * Secretly by Ruth Roston * The Devil's Rose by Tanith Lee * Wempires by Daniel Pinkwater * Scatter My Ashes by Greg Egan * Unfinished Portrait of the King of Pain by Van Gogh by Ian McDonald * Shoo Fly by Richard Matheson * The Thing Itself by Michael Blumlein * The Soft Whisper of Midnight Snow by Charles de Lint * Roman Games by Ann Gay * The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn by Patricia C. Wrede * The Book and Its Contents by Robert Kelly * The Great God Pan by M. John Harrison * Lost Bodies by Ian Watson * Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds by Dan Simmons * Preflash by John M. Ford * Life of Buddha by Lucius Shepard * Appointment With Eddie by Charles Beaumont * Fragments of Papyrus from the Temple of the Older Gods by William Kotzwinkle * Spillage by Nancy Kress * Snowman by Charles L. Grant * The Scar by Dennis Etchison * Laiken Langstrand by Gwyneth Jones * The Last Poem About the Snow Queen and Pinocchio by Sandra M. Gilbert * Game in the Pope's Head by Gene Wolfe * Playing the Game by Ramsey Campbell * Faces by F. Paul Wilson * Snowfall by Jessie Thompson * Seal-Self by Sara Maitland * No Hearts, No Flowers by Barry N. Malzberg * The Boy Who Drew Unicorns by Jane Yolen * The Darling by Scott Bradfield * Night They Missed the Horror Show by Joe R. Lansdale * Your Story by Rick DeMarinis * Winter Solstice - Camelot Station by John M. Ford * The Boy Who Hooked the Sun by Gene Wolfe * Clem's Dream by Joan Aiken * Love In Vain by Lewis Shiner * In the Darkened Hours by Bruce Boston * A Golden Net for Silver Fishes by Ru Emerson * Dancing Among Ghosts by Jim Aikin * Honorable Mentions: 1988

    On this occasion, however, they’re right up against it. A loaded gun has been left behind in Ancient Egypt and it’s up to them to retrieve it before anyone accidentally blows their own head off, thus affecting the timeline for centuries to come. And as if that’s not enough, someone (Max) has inadvertently poisoned Mr Markham. It’s hot, they’re running out of supplies, they can’t find the gun, and it’s all going horribly wrong. Again.