LUKE SHORT – Bold Rider. Dell 1st Edition #7, paperback original; 1st printing, 1953. Reprinted several times. Previously serialized as “Gun-Hammered Gold,” in the Daily News, January 17 through March 5, 1938 (according to copyright renewal records) and the Chicago Tribune (January 18 through March 5).

   My review not too long ago of First Claim (1960), also by Luke Short (and which you can find here) was not exactly negative, but neither was it positive, either.

   What I did say was that I was disappointed, mostly because of a well-worn plot (cowboy comes home from the war to reclaim his land, now held by someone else) and the fact that there were no twists in the tale along the way.

   I was not disappointed with Bold Rider, I can tell you that right now. There is plenty of action from start to finish, with definitely more than one thread to the plot, one which you will hard pressed to know which way it will turn next.

   Primarily, though, it’s the story of Poco St. Vrain, a chap who’s on the wrong side of the law, according to the law, and awfully handy with a gun, but he’s also a well-liked young fellow whose word, when he gives it, is as good as gold.

   And gold is the other part of the story. Two representatives of an insuring company are to act as guardians to a final shipment of the stuff from a mine perched at the top of a mountain, accessible only by a treacherous trail up its side, and all but deadly in the winter. But both men are dead, and their identification papers have fallen into the wrong hands.

   Poco poses as one, for nefarious reasons (well, it is gold, after all) and an even more despicable outlaw named Espey Cardowan pretends to be the other. Working independently — neither can call out the other, of course — they must work their way down the mountain again, together and in single file, carrying five hundred pounds of ore between them, and neither trusting the other as far as they can throw them.

   To make this small portion of the story short, Poco ends up in a snow-filled ravine with no way out, but then, out of the blue comes… And this is on page 45, with over 145 left to go.

   Poco makes his way out of this predicament, of course, you should not be surprised to learn, and he promises the daughter of the mine manager that he will retrieve the gold, a promise not easily kept as ruses, double crosses, shootouts, kidnapping, and a deadly runaway train stand in his way, not to mention the fact that Cardowan turns out to be the most vicious outlaw you may ever want to read about – being responsible for the kidnapping alluded to just now, and the runaway train in which all of the other passengers are dead (at his hand) or have been forced to jump.

   There is also the inevitable dance room girl with a heart of gold (there’s that word again), but Steamboat’s not your usual kind of dance room girl. She’s as good with a gun when it becomes necessary as anyone else in this tale, which I am pleased to recommend to you, without a single reservation.