When the character of Cole Lavery first appeared in the 1940s, readers immediately fell in love with the jack-of-all-trades who had a slow smile and a fast gun. And now, for the first time in paperback, all the Cole Lavery stories have been finally collected in one volume. The action flows seamlessly from one adventure to the next as Cole battles river pirates, a notorious bandit, and an unscrupulous robber baron; as he journeys to California on a wagon train beset by smallpox; and as he strives to attain the land and freedom that can only be found in the American West.