The colorful, action-packed story of a real cowboy, Gene Rhodes, who rode the range in the New Mexico territory for thirty years and then settled down in the East to write some of the finest fiction that has ever been written about the West. Gene's stories were an immediate success because he wrote about men he had known, lived with and worked with—ranchers, cowpokes, Indians, outlaws—as well as ornery cattle and wild mustangs.

Gene was barely twelve when he broke his first bronc, a wild mustang that would have given trouble to a far more seasoned rider. A few months later, with a cheap mail-order saddle slung over his shoulder, he got his first job as a wrangler. After the fall roundup, the same outfit gave him a job tending the winter camp, high up in the mountains. His only companions were the worn-out cow ponies—and his books; but in this lonely cabin Gene developed a love of reading that was to influence his entire life and earn him the nickname of "that loco cowboy." Gene often read as he jogged along the trail, and his horses were broken to the rustling pages of his books, just as they were to the rustling leaves of the brush.

In those days, bands of Indians, outlaws and bad men hid out in the hills. The Apache Kid was a constant threat to the ranchers of the Southwest, eggs were five dollars a dozen, there wasn't a milk cow in the entire territory, but raising beef cattle was a tough, hard business and the cowboy was king. Gene Rhodes was one of these kings of the range, a fast-riding cowboy who loved the West and wanted to tell other people about it. His stories were widely read and loved because they had the ring of truth, but no story he ever wrote could be more exciting than Gene's own life on the last frontier.

A real Western about a real cowboy, more absorbing than any fiction, because it is all true.

From the dust jacket