THE STRONG SHALL LIVE "You're said to be a tough man, Cavagan. I've heard it until I'm sick of it, so I've brought you here to see how much is tough and how much is shanty Irish bluff. We're leaving you here." Those were Sutton's ruthless last words be-fore riding off. Cavagan stood in the searing desert heat at the bottom of the deep sand pits, sixty miles from water, his hands tied and his body stiff from repeated beatings. Sixty miles from the nearest water. On foot, in one hundred and twenty degree heat. Only one thought gave Cavagan his driving strength: "I shall live! I shall live to see Sutton die!" Bantam Books by Louis L'Amour Ask your bookseller for the books you have missed BENDIGO SHAFTER THE QUICK AND THE DEAD BORDEN CHANTRY RADIGAN BRIONNE REILLY'S LUCK THE BROKEN GUN THE RIDER OF LOST CREEK BUCKSKIN RUN RIVERS WEST THE BURNING HILLS SHALAKO THE CALIFORNIOS SILVER CANYON CALLAGHEN SITKA CATLOW THE STRONG SHALL CHANCY LIVE THE CHEROKEE TAGGART TRAIL TUCKER COMSTOCK LODE UNDER THE CONAGHER SWEET-WATER DARK CANYON RIM DARK CANYON RIM DOWN THE LONG WAR PARTY HILLS WESTWARD THE THE EMPTY LAND TIDE FAIR BLOWS THE WHERE THE LONG GRASS BLOWS WIND YONDERING FALLON THE FERGUSON RIFLE THE FIRST FAST DRAW Sackett Titles by Louis L'Amour 1. SACKETT'S LAND FLINT 2. TO THE FAR BLUE MOUNTAINS 3. THE DAYBREAKERS GUNS OF THE TIMBER- 4. SACKETT LANDS 5. LANDO 6. MOJAVE CROSSING HANGING WOMAN 7. THE SACKETT BRAND CREEK 8. THE LONELY MEN THE HIGH GRADERS 9. TREASURE MOUNTAIN 10. MUSTANG MAN HIGH LONESOME 11. GALLOWAY 12. THE SKY-LINERS HOW THE WEST WAS WON WON 13. THE MAN FROM THE BROKEN HILLS 14. RIDE THE DARK TRAIL THE IRON 15. THE WARRIOR'S PATH MARSHAL 16. LONELY ON THE MOUNTAIN THE KEY-LOCK MAN KID RODELO KILLOE KILRONE KIOWA TRAIL THE MAN CALLED NOON THE MAN FROM SKIBBEREEN MATAGORDA MILO TALON THE MOUNTAIN VALLEY WAR NORTH TO THE RAILS OVER ON THE DRY SIDE THE PROVING TRAIL THE STRONG SHALL LIVE LOUIS L'AMOUR BANTAM BOOKS TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON • SYDNEY CONTENTS THE STRONG SHALL LIVE ONE NIGHT STAND TRAIL TO SQUAW SPRINGS MERRANO OF THE DRY COUNTRY THE ROMANCE OF PIUTE BILL HATTAN'S CASTLE DUFFY'S MAN BIG MAN THE MARSHAL OF SENTINEL BLUFF CREEK STATION FOREWORD: This book is a partial answer to those readers who have been asking where my short stories could be found. A previous collection appeared as WAR PARTY, and now these. A few of the stories were written long ago, others quite recently. All are, I believe, illustrative of the title of the collection. Not long ago a writer, attempting to find a progression in the development of my stories according to a pattern of his own devising, predicted that soon I would write a story with an ethnic hero. He was over thirty years late. Merrano, in this volume, is one such case, although there were others. My stories have nothing to do with race, creed, or nationality. They are simply stories of people on the frontier, and those people were of all kinds. If sometimes they resemble one another it is simply a pattern imposed upon them by the country and the time. The frontier was itself selective. It tended to eliminate the weak and the inefficient by one means or another. In these stories there are no "heroes" in the usual sense, although in the Homeric sense there may be. These are stories of people living out their lives against a background that demanded all they could give and often a bit more. They were people trying to find acceptable patterns of behavior in a totally new environment, drawing upon their past but adjusting themselves to new situations and attitudes. The frontier demanded they be self-reliant. Group-thinking and peer behavior had only a limited application. The West has been portrayed as lawless. This is literally untrue. The pioneers brought their church, their schools, and their town meetings with them. Necessarily, there were alterations in the laws they established to conform with changed conditions, but the law was there. It is true there were many free spirits