Smoke Jensen, The Beginning 4: When The Shooting Starts

Smoke and Sally aren’t sure they trust him. A glorious stretch of untamed land near the Colorado-Kansas border, it’s the perfect place to stake their claim, raise some cattle, and start a new family. Before he became known as “The Last Mountain Man,” Smoke Jensen and his bride Sally were hardworking ranchers on the Colorado frontier. This is a story of the early years. For Smoke and Sally Jensen, the Sugarloaf Ranch is the American Dream come true. The tribe’s charismatic leader, Black Drum, is launching raids on local ranches, farms, and the railroads, too. That’s when the shooting starts—and the final battle begins. When times were hard, tensions were high, and guns were the law. That’s when Smoke grabs his guns. This stranger calls himself Colonel Lamar Talbot. They suspect the colonel and his men are nothing more than brutal vigilantes with a hidden agenda of their own. Every day, the violence gets worse and the war moves closer—until it reaches the Sugarloaf Ranch. He’s come to warn them about a looming war with the Cheyenne Indians. But when a man claiming to be an army colonel arrives in Big Rock—with a well-armed militia—the Jensens’ dream becomes a living nightmare. And only he can save them from a bloody massacre—by launching a counterattack that’s even bloodier. But the Cheyenne war parties are a very real threat.

Smoke Jensen, The Beginning 4: When The Shooting Starts