Here are two of the finest short novels of one of the Western genre's classic writers. The title story finds Ed Thom ostracized from stage driving and arriving in the mining community of Ledge. There the Deerfoot Stage Line, owned by the father of his best friend, is faced with rain by a gang of outlaws -- and Ed means to change that. In "Barbed Wire", Jim Lance tries to occupy a homestead he won in a poker game, only to face a powerful rancher who intends to drive him away with the rest of the small ranchers. If he can't burn Lance out, he'll rain him with a new barbed wire law ...