The Legacy

by Paul Lederer

An elderly rancher is shot to death over a dispute about a hidden treasureJ. Pierce Buchanan has spent a lifetime tearing a living out of the open range—battling droughts and wildfire, Indians and bandits. At ninety, he has accumulated a fortune in gold pieces—some $50,000—but he will never get the chance to spend it. In the still of the night, someone sneaks into the old man’s bedroom and tortures him at gunpoint in a fearsome attempt to lay his hands on the treasure. When J. Pierce won’t speak, someone shoots him five times and disappears into the darkness. Heirs come out of the woodwork demanding a piece of the old man’s fortune, as the cowhands and yard men of the ranch scour the thirty-thousand acres searching for the stash. Into this frenzy of greed ride Glen Strange and Bobby Trapp, a pair of honest cowboys just looking for a scrap of work. The J-Bar Ranch has contracted gold fever, and J. Pierce Buchanan will not be the last victim.

133 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Paul Joseph Lederer wrote more than 250 novels, many of them Westerns. He was born in Ocean Beach, CA, attended San Diego State University, served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War, and lived in La Mesa, CA, until he passed away in 2016.

His work can also be found under the names Paul Joseph Lederer, Logan Winters, Owen G. Irons, C. J. Sommers, and Elizabeth Wolfe. In recent years, many of these books have been reprinted as by Paul Lederer.

Lederer wrote most of the adult western series Shelter as Paul Ledd and Ruff Justice as Warren T. Longtree. He also wrote for the Easy Company and Lone Star series.