wild western women

Fifteen-year-old Gertrude Hutchings sat on the edge of her sister Florence’s bed, crying.  Florence, a pretty girl of seventeen with long, dark hair lay motionless under a mountain of blankets.  A massive purple and black bruise on the side of her right cheek was the only color on her slender, pale face.  Her eyes were...

A shabby looking prospector emerged from the dark, weathered entrance of the Matchless Mine in Leadville, Colorado, and straightened his stooped shoulders.  He dropped his pickax beside a rusty ore cart and rolled and lit a cigarette.  His weary face was set in a scowl as he surveyed the mountains rising precipitately around the well-worked...