FIRST HERD TO ABILENE

An H. H. Lomax Western, #5

by

PRESTON LEWIS

Genre: Historical Fiction / Western / Humor

Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing

Date of Publication: February 5, 2020

Number of Pages: 449

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HISTORICALLY SOUND AND HILARIOUSLY FUNNY! 

H.H. Lomax meets Wild Bill Hickok in Springfield, Missouri, and is responsible for Hickok’s legendary gunfight with Davis Tutt. Fearing Hickok will hold a grudge, Lomax escapes Springfield and agrees to promote Joseph G. McCoy’s dream of building Abilene, Kansas, into a cattle town, ultimately leading the first herd to Abilene from Texas.

Along the way, he encounters Indians, rabid skunks, flash floods, a stampede, and the animosities of some fellow cowboys trying to steal profits from the drive. Lomax is saved by the timely arrival of now U.S. Marshal Hickok, but Lomax uses counterfeit wanted posters to convince Hickok his assailants are wanted felons with rewards on their heads.

Lomax and Wild Bill go their separate ways until they run into each other a decade later in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, where Hickok vows to kill Lomax for getting him fired.

First Herd to Abilene is an entertaining mix of historical and hysterical fiction.

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As the last to return, Silas and I were only two drovers without sleep since the stampede so we spooned down the food as fast as we could, planning to crawl in our bedrolls and get blessed rest.  While we ate, Sainty mounted his horse and rode out to bring Parsons and Mark to the wagon, leaving the cattle unguarded.  Then he motioned to the remuda for Muñoz and Ramírez to join us.  I finished my plate and carried it over to Bitters, then went to fetch my bedding, but Sainty told me to rejoin to the others.

“Men,” he announced, “we lost a hundred and thirty-three steers by my herd count plus another thirteen that had to be shot due to injuries.  We can’t afford more losses that size.”

Everybody nodded.

“Your pay and the Five-D Ranch’s survival depend on reducing our losses and making as big a profit as we can.”

“Hold on,” said Muscher.  “You’re not cutting our pay because of the stampede, are you?”

“No, Chuck, but if we don’t have cattle when we get to Abilene, there’ll be nothing to pay anybody with.”

“Cattle or no cattle, you’ll owes us a dollar a day,” cried O’Henry.”

“You owe me a full day’s work, which I don’t always get, Irish.  We’re in this together, whether we like it or not.  That’s why I need to know what started the stampede so it won’t happen again.

O’Henry spun around and pointed at me.  “Lomax started it.  He farted!”

Preston Lewis is the Spur Award-winning author of thirty novels. In addition to his two Western Writers of America Spurs, he received the 2018 Will Rogers Gold Medallion for Western Humor for Bluster’s Last Stand, the fourth volume in his comic western series, The Memoirs of H. H. Lomax. Two other books in that series were Spur finalists. His comic western The Fleecing of Fort Griffin received the Elmer Kelton Award from the West Texas Historical Association for best creative work on the region.

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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

1ST PRIZE:

Signed Copies of First Herd to Abilene and Bluster’s Last Stand

2ND PRIZE:

Signed Copy of First Herd to Abilene

APRIL 28-MAY 8, 2020

(US ONLY)

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