{"product_id":"tucker-isbn-9780553250220","title":"Tucker","description":"“If a man won’t fight for what is rightly his, then he ain’t much account.” With  this challenge from his dying father, young Shell Tucker rode out after three men  who had stolen the twenty thousand dollars his father was carrying. Two of the men  he hunted, Doc Sites and Kid Reese, were his friends. Dreaming of adventure, Tucker  had wanted to join their gang. But now, with his father gone and the people back  home desperately in need of the proceeds from the cattle drive, Shell was determined  to uphold his father’s reputation and recover their money. He knew the odds were  against him. Finding his friends would be difficult. Getting the money back would  be nearly impossible.Our foremost storyteller of the American West, \u003cb\u003eLouis L’Amour \u003c\/b\u003ehas thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and woman who settled the frontier. There are more than three hundred million copies of his books in print around the world.\u003ci\u003eChapter One\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    WHEN I RODE up to the buffalo wallow pa was lying there with his leg   broke and his horse gone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    It was mid-afternoon of a mighty hot day and pa had been lying there   three, four hours. His canteen was on his horse, so he had nothing to   drink in all that time. I got down and fetched him water with my   canteen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Thanks, boy. Looks like I played hob.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Well,\" I said, \"you got you a busted leg, but your jaw's in good   shape. You been arguin' at me for months, now, so you just set back   an' argue some more whilst I fix up your leg.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You got to saddle and ride, boy.\" A body could see he was fighting   pain. \"Everything we own and most of what our neighbors own is in   those saddlebags. You just forget about me and hunt down that horse.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    If I'd been older in years instead of being just man-size I might   have thought about the money first, but likely not. There was twenty   thousand dollars in those saddlebags, and less than a third of it was   ours. It was the sale money for a steer herd we'd driven up the trail   from Texas, and folks back home was a-sweating until we got back with   that money.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"We'll take care of your busted leg first,\" I said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    There was mighty little to do with out there on the prairie, but I   broke some mesquite and trimmed it with my knife, shaping some   splints for pa's leg.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    We'd never been much on gettin' along together, pa an' me, and we   wrangled most of the time on something or other. Here I was,   seventeen and feeling uppity with the growing strength in me and the   need to make folks see me as a man. About all I could do, come to   think about it, was ride a horse and shoot a gun.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Pa objected to the company I kept, and down deep inside I more'n half   agreed with him, but stubborn-like, I wasn't going to be told. Pa   objected to me spending time out in the gully practicing   gun-slinging. He was forever telling me that no gunman he'd ever   heard tell of ever had anything but a bad reputation with folks who   mattered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Time of trouble,\" I objected, \"a man who can handle a gun is good to   have around, and on your side.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Sure,\" pa would say, \"but when trouble is over folks can't get shut   of him fast enough.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Well, I'd always told myself I could make as big tracks as any man,   but now I was faced up with it and had no idea what to do.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    One thing I knew. I needed a water hole and some shade for pa. Once   he was bedded down I could hightail it after that horse. The quickest   way to water might be to trail pa's horse, anyway, so I hoisted him   into the saddle with some help from him, and we'd taken after pa's   gelding.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    That fool horse ran straightaway, then slowed to a walk. From time to   time we could see where the horse stopped to look back, or to nibble   on some mesquite or such. When the tracks began to edge off toward   the southwest I was hopeful he was headed for water.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Pa sat up in the saddle and he didn't say aye, yes, or no. This was   up to me now, and we both knew it, and he held his jaw. It had me   feeling guilty and responsible all at the same time. And then an hour   short of sundown we fetched up to some other tracks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    They came in from the northwest and they were shod horses. Three in   the bunch . . . and they'd caught pa's horse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Half the outlaws in the country lived in that part of the territory,   and the chances were that anybody riding across here was an outlaw,   or kin to them. Not to say that many a man who passes for honest   wouldn't help himself to twenty thousand dollars and a lost horse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Don't you take notions, son. You ain't about to go up against three   men. Not with me in this condition.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    It was shy of sundown when we came to the creek. It wasn't much. Two,   three feet wide and a few inches deep, running through a sparse   meadow between low-growing willows, with here and there a clump of   cottonwood. When I had pa off his horse and bedded down, I unslung my   canteen and filled it at the creek.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You set quiet, pa. I'll go fetch that horse.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Don't be a fool, Edwin. You stay here.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Pa never called me Edwin unless he was mad or upset, and it was plain   to be seen now that he was a worried man. Well, I was some worried my   ownself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Pa had always taken on about what it meant to have a good name, and   how a man was judged by the company he kept. Whenever he saw me   strutting it around with Doc Sites, Kid Reese, and them, he would   read the riot act to me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    They bragged they had rustled cows, and maybe they had. They never   worked that I could see, but they always had them a few dollars,   which was more than I could say, and pa kept me working morning until   night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    For the first time I was beginning to understand what it might mean   to have a good name. If we showed up back home without that money   some folks would believe our story, but others would recall that I'd   been trailing around with Doc Sites and Kid Reese, and they would   talk it up. Some others would come to believe there'd been something   wrong, and the first thing you knew they'd give pa a bad name as well   as me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    We'd never had much. When I was born pa lived back east, but after a   bad time he came west and got himself some land of his own. Fire   burned him out that fall, and the following spring he put in a crop   with borrowed seed, and the grasshoppers taken the crop.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    He worked almighty hard, but two years of drouth followed, and we   lost the place. I've heard folks talk as if anybody who didn't have   money must be no-account, but they didn't know some of the   hard-working folks I'd known.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    We moved to Texas then and filed on a claim and worked like dogs for   three years. We built a house and a barn, and got a couple hundred   head of stock. Then Comanches raided us, burned us out, and ran off   the stock. They killed my Uncle Bud that time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The herd we had just sold was the first we'd been able to put   together, and once we got home with that money we'd have an edge on   the future for the first time. We were headed home when pa and me had   a big argument and I rode off and left him, mad as all get-out and   swearing not to come back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Only a few hours later I did turn back, and lucky I did. Pa's horse   had shied at a rattler and throwed him, breaking his leg. If I hadn't   quit sulking and turned back he might have died right there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Had I been with him I could have caught up his horse and we'd have   only the broke leg to worry about. As it was we stood to lose all we   had, and all our friends had as well, and they'd trusted us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Well, anyway, I taken after our horse and those men, and hadn't gone   more than a mile from where I'd left pa before I smelled smoke. They   had them a fire under some cottonwoods alongside that same creek   where I'd left pa, and before they saw me coming I'd recognized them.   It was Doc Sites, Kid Reese, and a square-shouldered man in a cowhide   vest and a black hat. That had to be Bob Heseltine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    How many stories had Doc and the Kid told me about him? He was, they   said, the best rider, the best shot, and the fastest man with a gun   anywhere around. Bob Heseltine had held up the Garston Bank. He had   killed Sheriff Baker in a gun battle. He had, they said, made two   Texas Rangers back down. All they talked about was Bob Heseltine and   the big things they'd do when he got back . . . and here he was.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    He was a mite shorter than me but wide in the shoulders, and the hide   of his face was like tanned leather. He wore his gun tied down, and a   body could see he was a mighty tough man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    There was pa's horse, still saddled. The saddlebags were off and the   money dumped on the blanket. They would be some disappointed when   they saw me riding up to claim it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Howdy!\" I called out, riding into camp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Fixed on the money as they were, they jumped for their guns, ready to fight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Kid Reese relaxed when he saw me. \"It's all right, Bob. He's a friend of ours.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"I see you found pa's horse.\" I was mighty dry in the mouth, all of a   sudden. \"And our money.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Heseltine turned his head around at me, real slow. His hard blue eyes   looked mean at you over high cheekbones. Doc's lips kind of thinned   down, and Kid Reese taken a slow breath, just a-staring at me.   Firelight flickered on their faces, on the shining flanks of their   horses, and on the gold and silver coins heaped on the blanket. It   flickered off their gun barrels, too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"What d'you mean? Your money?\" Heseltine demanded. \"This here is our money.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Hey, now!\" I objected. \"Look-\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You look.\" Heseltine fixed me with those hard blue eyes. \"I never   seen you before. You come ridin' in here and lay claim to our money.   You ain't about to get it. Not a lousy two-bits worth.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"They know me.\" I indicated Doc and the Kid. \"And they know that   horse. Pa bought that horse in East Texas, and has papers on him. The   Kid knows that horse-he's seen me ride him often enough. And that's   pa's saddle.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Nobody said anything, and suddenly I was scared. Sure, me and the Kid   and Doc, we had talked big of robberies and such, but that was fool   kid talk . . . or was it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"That's his pa's horse, all right,\" Reese admitted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You shut your trap,\" Heseltine said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"That money belongs to us and to the folks back home,\" I said. \"You   know that, Doc.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Hell,\" Doc said, \"they never did nothing for me back there.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You could come in with us,\" Reese suggested. \"Just like we planned   it would be when Bob came back. We can start right from here, the   four of us-but with money.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    We had done some talking about rustling cattle and robbing stages or   banks, but now they wanted to steal our money, the money pa and me   and our neighbors had sweated for. Right then I began to take a   different view of things. It was one thing to talk of being bandits,   but I guess I'd never really thought of it as anything but talk. Now   I could see how it hurt a man to be robbed of what he'd worked hard   for.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Pa's back up the creek with his leg broke,\" I said, not thinking how   much I was giving away to them. \"I've got to get back to him with   that horse and the money.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Bob Heseltine was facing me. \"You may have been a friend to the boys   here, but you're not taking any money away from here. Not you nor   anybody else.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    All three of them were facing me, all squared away to make their   fight. Kid Reese was suddenly grinning like a fool. He'd always   looked down on me, anyway. Doc had a rifle in his hands, and   Heseltine had laid it on the line for them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    They stood ready to kill me. And these were the boys I'd been hanging   out with all summer. These were the friends I'd defended to my pa.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    They had me euchred. Pa, he used to tell me that when a man was   holding the wrong cards it was always better not to try to buck the   game. It was better to throw in your cards and wait for another deal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Only thing I was wondering now was, would they let me get out of here?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You won't be needin' pa's horse,\" I said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    I caught up the reins and rode out of there, but it was all seeming   unreal to me. I was expecting any minute to get a bullet in the back.   It was Heseltine who worried me. Then I heard Reese say, \"You ain't   goin' to let him ride off? He'll have the law on us.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"For what? For finding money?\" But I kept on going.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Riding back to where pa lay, I kept telling myself that if it hadn't   been for pa I'd have shot it out with them, but way down deep I   wasn't so sure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Pa was setting up, his back against a tree. He looked mighty relieved   when I rode in, but his face was gray and drawn. He was surely in   pain. So I built us a fire and made coffee whilst I told him about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Son, we've got to get our money. Folks trusted us with their stock,   an' we given our word.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    So I explained about Bob Heseltine, who was maybe as tough as Wild Bill Hickok.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Who says so, boy? Those two-by-twice hitch-rack outlaws? Neither   Sites nor Reese would know a tough man if they saw one.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"I saw him. He sizes up mighty mean.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Pa looked at me out of those level gray eyes of his. Old eyes, I   suddenly realized. I'd never thought of pa as old, but he was. I'd   been a son born to his later years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"How tough are you, boy?\" he asked now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"Me?\" I was startled. I'd never thought of myself as really tough.   Well, I take that back. Time to time down in the gully where I'd   practiced with a six-shooter I had told myself what I'd do if faced   with trouble . . . only this here was no daydream. \"Why, I don't   know. I guess a man has to find out.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    What surprised me more than anything was pa suggesting I might be   tough. He'd always played that down.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You're right, son. You never know how tough a man is until you've   tried him. Edwin, you he'p me up on that horse. We're a-goin' back.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"You got you a broke leg.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"My trigger finger ain't broke.\" Pa, he looked at me. \"Edwin, you and   me worked side by side doing the work of five or six men to put that   herd together. We taken it up the trail short-handed. We held it   together against Indians, hailstorms, and stampede. We taken it over   land and through water and we ate dust and went through hell to do it.","brand":"Bantam","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303540707557,"sku":"NP9780553250220","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780553250220.jpg?v=1767743027","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/tucker-isbn-9780553250220","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}