Lone Star Rising
Contents ( 18)
LONE STAR
RISING
Forge Books by Elmer Kelton
Badger Boy
Bitter Trail
The Buckskin Line
Buffalo Wagons
Cloudy in the West
Hot Iron
The Pumpkin Rollers
Rangers Trail
The Smiling Country
The Texas Rifles
The Way of the Coyote
Lone Star Rising
comprising The Buckskin Line, Badger Boy, and The Way of the Coyote)
LONE
STAR
RISING
THE
TEXAS RANGERS
TRILOGY
ELMER
KELTON
| A Tom Doherty |
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in these novels are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
LONE STAR RISING: THE TEXAS RANGERS TRILOGY
Copyright © 2003 by Elmer Kelton
The Buckskin Line copyright © 1999 by Elmer Kelton
Badger Boy copyright © 2001 by Elmer Kelton
The Way of the Coyote copyright © 2001 by Elmer Kelton
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Design by Milenda Nanok Lee
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelton, Elmer.
Lone star rising : the Texas Rangers trilogy / Elmer Kelton.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Forge book”—T.p. verso
Contents: The buckskin line—Badger Bov—The wav of the covote.
ISBN 0-765-30891-6
1. Texas Rangers—Fiction. 2. Texas—Fiction. 3. Historical fiction, American. 4. Western stories. I. Title.
PS3561.E3975L64 2003
813’.54—dc21
2003046852
First Edition: November 2003
Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
The Buckskin Line
Badger Boy
The Way of the Coyote
THE
BUCKSKIN
Line
FOREWORD
The Alamo, the cowboy on horseback, the towering oil derrick are powerful Texas icons. Another, just as universally recognized, is the Texas Ranger. In the public imagination he is a mythic figure seven feet tall, unflinching in the face of danger, sticking to the trail through hell and high water until he gets his man. Folklore is replete with stories such as one about a single ranger being sent to quell a riot. One riot, one ranger.
In reality, of course, the ranger historically has been a common man with virtues and faults reflecting his time and the environment in which he lived. He has had courage and endurance when the need arose, but he has known frustration and uncertainty as well. Just the fact of his being a ranger has given him a moral advantage in confrontations, inspiring awe and fear in those who opposed him. On the other hand he has not been immune to mistakes in judgment. In reflecting the views and mores of his time he has sometimes been intolerant. He has sometimes been arbitrary.