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Dead Freight for Piute
A hard-riding cowboy teams up with a stubborn farm girl to save her family’s freight business in this adventure from a master storyteller of the West.
When her brother finds himself locked in a vicious battle with corrupt kingpin Craig Armin for control of the freight business in a silver town called Piute, Celia Wallace sells the family farm and goes west to help him. She’s just short of her destination when bandits attack her stagecoach, pressing a pistol to Celia and making her hand over every cent she has. She’s ruined—but she’ll fight to get her revenge.
Meanwhile, Armin’s nephew Cole, who knows nothing about his uncle’s underhanded dealings, has come to Piute looking for a job running one of his uncle’s mule trains. But he will find a cause helping Celia search for her stolen money, betraying his own family to do what’s right.
Dead Freight for Piute is a hard-hitting, authentic western about the brave men and women who had the true grit to stand up to evil, greedy men in a land where the only law was the law of the gun.
When her brother finds himself locked in a vicious battle with corrupt kingpin Craig Armin for control of the freight business in a silver town called Piute, Celia Wallace sells the family farm and goes west to help him. She’s just short of her destination when bandits attack her stagecoach, pressing a pistol to Celia and making her hand over every cent she has. She’s ruined—but she’ll fight to get her revenge.
Meanwhile, Armin’s nephew Cole, who knows nothing about his uncle’s underhanded dealings, has come to Piute looking for a job running one of his uncle’s mule trains. But he will find a cause helping Celia search for her stolen money, betraying his own family to do what’s right.
Dead Freight for Piute is a hard-hitting, authentic western about the brave men and women who had the true grit to stand up to evil, greedy men in a land where the only law was the law of the gun.
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1939
34 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Luke Short
128 books36 followersLuke Short (real name Frederick Dilley Glidden) was a popular Western writer.
Born in Kewanee, Illinois Glidden attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two and a half years and then transferred to the University of Missouri at Columbia to study journalism.
Following graduation in 1930 he worked for a number of newspapers before becoming a trapper in Canada then later moved to New Mexico to be an archeologist's assistant.
After reading Western pulp magazines and trying to escape unemployment he started writing Western fiction. He sold his first short story and novel in 1935 under the pen name of Luke Short (which was also the name of a famous gunslinger in the Old West, though it's unclear if he was aware of that when he assumed the pen name.)
After publishing over a dozen novels in the 1930s, he started writing for films in the 40s. In 1948 alone four Luke Short novels appeared as movies. Some of his memorable film credits includes Ramrod (1947) and Blood on the Moon (1948). He continued to write novels, despite increasing trouble with his eyes, until his death in 1975. His ashes are buried in Aspen, Colorado, his home at the time of his death.
Born in Kewanee, Illinois Glidden attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two and a half years and then transferred to the University of Missouri at Columbia to study journalism.
Following graduation in 1930 he worked for a number of newspapers before becoming a trapper in Canada then later moved to New Mexico to be an archeologist's assistant.
After reading Western pulp magazines and trying to escape unemployment he started writing Western fiction. He sold his first short story and novel in 1935 under the pen name of Luke Short (which was also the name of a famous gunslinger in the Old West, though it's unclear if he was aware of that when he assumed the pen name.)
After publishing over a dozen novels in the 1930s, he started writing for films in the 40s. In 1948 alone four Luke Short novels appeared as movies. Some of his memorable film credits includes Ramrod (1947) and Blood on the Moon (1948). He continued to write novels, despite increasing trouble with his eyes, until his death in 1975. His ashes are buried in Aspen, Colorado, his home at the time of his death.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 15, 2019
Long ago watching a Hitchcock film I saw in the credits, ‘Based on a book by’ and it started me down the road of reading a lot of film source materials. The old question of is the film or the book better, I suppose. And yes, usually it’s the book. In this case, I saw the movie first, Albuquerque, starring Randolph Scott. When I noticed it was based on a Luke Short book I had to find and read it. A library book sale was able to accommodate me.
Dead Freight for Piute is pretty much the story of the film, even the names remain the same. Cole Armin is a down on his luck Texan called to the ore mining boom town of Piute by his well to do uncle. When Cole throws in with the rival outfit his uncle is trying to run out of business, a deadly game of oneupsmanship begins. There are two love stories inexpertly attempted. No one seems to realize they’re in love and it falls to a burly, dumb teamster to try and play Cupid. It’s such an amusing concept it almost works. There’s a really great fight scene when the main heavy accuses Celia, the woman Cole doesn’t realize he’s in love with, of being in want of a marriage license. It’s a nicely phrased and turned bit of the book. This being said in front of a dozen other teamsters so enrages Cole that he beats and whips the man savagely. It works because it’s the only thing that would stir him to action at that moment with the goading he was previously taking. There’s another great scene in a bar when the teamsters help Cole to get the best of the weak sheriff. But in the end I knock off a star because main character Cole is really not a super likable character. He has moments of greatness but he’s a seriously scary dude. He has these violent rages where no one can stop him until it passes. And his final showdown is just a bit too far over the line. I kept thinking that Celia really needs to reconsider her feelings for him because he could really hurt her somewhere down the line. And to go from murderous rampage to happily ever after with a kiss in one page was a bit too big a whiplash to take.
Overall, a good story, the movie was faithful to the source material in the most important ways and the script doctor was smart enough to tone down Cole Armin into a more like able character we could root for to win. In the book, there’s a lot to like, especially if you know and like Luke Short’s rough and tumble western worlds. Just watch that last fight, it’s a doozy.
Dead Freight for Piute is pretty much the story of the film, even the names remain the same. Cole Armin is a down on his luck Texan called to the ore mining boom town of Piute by his well to do uncle. When Cole throws in with the rival outfit his uncle is trying to run out of business, a deadly game of oneupsmanship begins. There are two love stories inexpertly attempted. No one seems to realize they’re in love and it falls to a burly, dumb teamster to try and play Cupid. It’s such an amusing concept it almost works. There’s a really great fight scene when the main heavy accuses Celia, the woman Cole doesn’t realize he’s in love with, of being in want of a marriage license. It’s a nicely phrased and turned bit of the book. This being said in front of a dozen other teamsters so enrages Cole that he beats and whips the man savagely. It works because it’s the only thing that would stir him to action at that moment with the goading he was previously taking. There’s another great scene in a bar when the teamsters help Cole to get the best of the weak sheriff. But in the end I knock off a star because main character Cole is really not a super likable character. He has moments of greatness but he’s a seriously scary dude. He has these violent rages where no one can stop him until it passes. And his final showdown is just a bit too far over the line. I kept thinking that Celia really needs to reconsider her feelings for him because he could really hurt her somewhere down the line. And to go from murderous rampage to happily ever after with a kiss in one page was a bit too big a whiplash to take.
Overall, a good story, the movie was faithful to the source material in the most important ways and the script doctor was smart enough to tone down Cole Armin into a more like able character we could root for to win. In the book, there’s a lot to like, especially if you know and like Luke Short’s rough and tumble western worlds. Just watch that last fight, it’s a doozy.
October 22, 2022
Any Luke Short western is going to be at least decent and this one is really good. It's a freight war between two companies and when the owner that is winning brings in his nephew, Cole, it looks like everything is set. However this nephew sees quickly what kind of man and business he was about to get in with and ends up at the small time competition to fight his uncle. Lots of tragedy follows but Cole Armin is a hard man to beat when he is mad.
Highly recommended, fast paced and has a little mystery tale woven in too, which was a nice addition.
Highly recommended, fast paced and has a little mystery tale woven in too, which was a nice addition.
July 27, 2017
A lesser Luke Short effort this tale of western freighting never generates enough excitement to make it interesting. Still, it is Luke Short and, therefore, worth reading. Recommended only to Short devotees.
January 13, 2024
No cows this time
This Western is a bit different in there are no herds of cattle lots of miles though. In a mining town there is a war going on between rival freight companies to haul ore from the mines to the ore mills. One of the companies wants to control all of the freighting and the other one wants to get a fair share of the business. So basically what we have in this story is a power struggle in a dangerous business. The characters are well written so you know the good guys from the bad guys, but a warning some of the bad guys are also at odds with the other bad guys. I enjoyed this book as it is pretty straightforward in the plot and there was a little twist at the end.
This Western is a bit different in there are no herds of cattle lots of miles though. In a mining town there is a war going on between rival freight companies to haul ore from the mines to the ore mills. One of the companies wants to control all of the freighting and the other one wants to get a fair share of the business. So basically what we have in this story is a power struggle in a dangerous business. The characters are well written so you know the good guys from the bad guys, but a warning some of the bad guys are also at odds with the other bad guys. I enjoyed this book as it is pretty straightforward in the plot and there was a little twist at the end.
March 31, 2026
The weakest of the Shorts I've read yet; too many twists and turns, too much goofy romance. The hero is a bit too like a superhero: his bullets never miss, his fists are like jackhammers, his loyalty never waivers.
June 17, 2024
Very good
April 5, 2026
Good and fun....
A good who done it and when's everyone going to figure it out. Nicely done novel.
Thank you for the experience.
A good who done it and when's everyone going to figure it out. Nicely done novel.
Thank you for the experience.
October 26, 2021
Dead Freight for Piute was serialized in Western Story Magazine in November & December of 1939. It has a nifty premise. Rather than dealing with cattle drives, outlaws or Indians, it deals with freighting companies.
Hauling freight was, of course, an important part of building the West, but it doesn’t quite have the romantic flair of driving cattle over the Chisum trail, forming a posse to chase outlaws, or a last stand against Apache warriors. But Short demonstrates in this novel that the freight business is a rich source of drama and adventure when placed in the hands of a good writer.
Cole Armin shows up in the mining boom town of Piute, looking for a job with his Uncle Craig’s freight business. His trip to Piute was not without incident, though. The stage he rode in on was robbed and a pretty lady passenger named Celia Wallace is robbed of the $10,000 in cash she was carrying. She was bringing this money to her brother Ted, who is running his own freight company in competition with the Monarch—Craig Armin’s company.
Celia knows who Cole is and assumes he’s in on the robbery, which was engineered by Craig to wipe
out the competition. But Cole finds out his uncle is a crook, wins a fight against a teamster he recognized as the stage robber, then blackmails Craig into returning the cash. Soon, Cole is working for Ted and Celia with the Western Freight company.
Craig is determined to be the one-and-only freight company, though. What follows is a convoluted but well-told story in which Craig, his top thug Wade Billings and dishonest sheriff Ed Linton plot to destroy the Western company while also plotting and counter-plotting to double-cross each other.
Cole is a great protagonist. He’s unfamiliar with the freighting business (something that’s used as an effective plot point several times), but he’s smart and intensely loyal to anyone he befriends. He has a temper, though, which is directed at the bad guys but can sometimes rise to a frightening level. That’s also an effective plot point on a few occasions.
So Short writes a Western that—like many Westerns—mirrors the hard-boiled fiction that the Western genre helped spawn. And he keeps the action moving with some superbly written action set pieces. Cole’s fist fight with Wade Billings, involving a bull whip (which is why one edition of the book was titled Bull-Whip) is truly exciting. A sequence in which the Cole, still inexperienced as a teamster as he navigates a large wagon full of ore down a mountain trail, turns equally exciting when he discovers someone sawed through the brake lever.
The final gunfight, with Cole carrying an injured Ted Wallace over his shoulders while Ted shoots at the bad guys and fumbles in Cole’s belt for more bullets, is one of the best I’ve ever read.
Dead Freight for Piute was made into a movie in 1948 and re-titled Albuquerque. Starring Randolph Scott as Cole, it’s a pretty good Western, though the plot was streamlined and more straightforward, making it less interesting that Short’s more complex novel. Still, it’s got Lon Chaney , Jr. as one of the bad guys and Gabby Hayes as Scott’s sidekick, so it’s still fun to watch.
Hauling freight was, of course, an important part of building the West, but it doesn’t quite have the romantic flair of driving cattle over the Chisum trail, forming a posse to chase outlaws, or a last stand against Apache warriors. But Short demonstrates in this novel that the freight business is a rich source of drama and adventure when placed in the hands of a good writer.
Cole Armin shows up in the mining boom town of Piute, looking for a job with his Uncle Craig’s freight business. His trip to Piute was not without incident, though. The stage he rode in on was robbed and a pretty lady passenger named Celia Wallace is robbed of the $10,000 in cash she was carrying. She was bringing this money to her brother Ted, who is running his own freight company in competition with the Monarch—Craig Armin’s company.
Celia knows who Cole is and assumes he’s in on the robbery, which was engineered by Craig to wipe
out the competition. But Cole finds out his uncle is a crook, wins a fight against a teamster he recognized as the stage robber, then blackmails Craig into returning the cash. Soon, Cole is working for Ted and Celia with the Western Freight company.
Craig is determined to be the one-and-only freight company, though. What follows is a convoluted but well-told story in which Craig, his top thug Wade Billings and dishonest sheriff Ed Linton plot to destroy the Western company while also plotting and counter-plotting to double-cross each other.
Cole is a great protagonist. He’s unfamiliar with the freighting business (something that’s used as an effective plot point several times), but he’s smart and intensely loyal to anyone he befriends. He has a temper, though, which is directed at the bad guys but can sometimes rise to a frightening level. That’s also an effective plot point on a few occasions.
So Short writes a Western that—like many Westerns—mirrors the hard-boiled fiction that the Western genre helped spawn. And he keeps the action moving with some superbly written action set pieces. Cole’s fist fight with Wade Billings, involving a bull whip (which is why one edition of the book was titled Bull-Whip) is truly exciting. A sequence in which the Cole, still inexperienced as a teamster as he navigates a large wagon full of ore down a mountain trail, turns equally exciting when he discovers someone sawed through the brake lever.
The final gunfight, with Cole carrying an injured Ted Wallace over his shoulders while Ted shoots at the bad guys and fumbles in Cole’s belt for more bullets, is one of the best I’ve ever read.
Dead Freight for Piute was made into a movie in 1948 and re-titled Albuquerque. Starring Randolph Scott as Cole, it’s a pretty good Western, though the plot was streamlined and more straightforward, making it less interesting that Short’s more complex novel. Still, it’s got Lon Chaney , Jr. as one of the bad guys and Gabby Hayes as Scott’s sidekick, so it’s still fun to watch.
October 10, 2018
A Luke Short western about a man and woman from two different families who have joined ranks to see if they can stop a freight war before it begins. The girl is returning home when held up losing all her money. The man sees how deceptive his family has become. The two work together to stop a potential war. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews