Devil's Manhunt

By L. Ron Hubbard

In the Arizona territory, every mountain hides a fortune—and every man fends for himself.

Tim Beckdolt is as American as the frontier itself, as rangy and self-reliant as a young Jimmy Stewart. But after spending eight treacherous months digging $175,000 in gold out of Desperation Peak—all he has left is desperation. Two sadistic strangers have taken his gold, and now they want to take his life. He’s on the run—the target of a Devil’s Manhunt.

In a time and a place where the only law is the law of survival, Beckdolt will have to live by his wits…or die by the bullet.

In 1932, Hubbard led a mining crew on a six-month West Indies Mineralogical Expedition in Puerto Rico—the first complete survey of the island since it had become an American territory. It was an experience that informs this title with remarkable realism.

Also includes two additional Western tales: “Johnny, the Town Tamer,” the story of a local swindler who meets his match, and “Stranger in Town,” in which a drifter confronts a corrupt sheriff … and his own dark past.

“A thrilling novel of greed, violence, survival and perseverance, Devil's Manhunt perfectly embodies the unbridled excitement of pulp fiction.” —Midwest Book Review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Galaxy Press
• Release date: Feb 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781592125531

L. Ron Hubbard

With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.

Book preview

SELECTED FICTION WORKS

BY L. RON HUBBARD

FANTASY

The Case of the Friendly Corpse

Death’s Deputy

Fear

The Ghoul

The Indigestible Triton

Slaves of Sleep & The Masters of Sleep

Typewriter in the Sky

The Ultimate Adventure

SCIENCE FICTION

Battlefield Earth

The Conquest of Space

The End Is Not Yet

Final Blackout

The Kilkenny Cats

The Kingslayer

The Mission Earth Dekalogy*

Ole Doc Methuselah

To the Stars

ADVENTURE

The Hell Job series

WESTERN

Buckskin Brigades

Empty Saddles

Guns of Mark Jardine

Hot Lead Payoff

A full list of L. Ron Hubbard’s

novellas and short stories is provided at the back.

*Dekalogy—a group of ten volumes

TitlePgArt.jpg

Published by

Galaxy Press, LLC

7051 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 200

Hollywood, CA 90028

© 2008 L. Ron Hubbard Library. All Rights Reserved.

Any unauthorized copying, translation, duplication, importation or distribution, in whole or in part, by any means, including electronic copying, storage or transmission, is a violation of applicable laws.

Mission Earth is a trademark owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library and is used with permission. Battlefield Earth is a trademark owned by Author Services, Inc. and is used with permission.

Horsemen illustration and Glossary illustration from Western Story Magazine and Story Preview cover art from Wild West Weekly are © and ™ Condé Nast Publications and are used with their permission. Fantasy, Far-Flung Adventure and Science Fiction illustrations: Unknown and Astounding Science Fiction copyright © by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of Penny Publications, LLC.

ISBN-13 978-1-59212-553-1 ePub version

ISBN-13 978-1-59212-265-3 print version

ISBN-13 978-1-59212-385-8 audiobook version

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007928464

Contents

FOREWORD

DEVIL’S MANHUNT

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

JOHNNY, THE TOWN TAMER

STRANGER IN TOWN

STORY PREVIEW:

SHADOWS FROM BOOT HILL

GLOSSARY

L. RON HUBBARD

IN THE GOLDEN AGE

OF PULP FICTION

THE STORIES FROM THE

GOLDEN AGE

Contents

FOREWORD

Stories from Pulp Fiction’s Golden Age

AND it was a golden age.

The 1930s and 1940s were a vibrant, seminal time for a gigantic audience of eager readers, probably the largest per capita audience of readers in American history. The magazine racks were chock-full of publications with ragged trims, garish cover art, cheap brown pulp paper, low cover prices—and the most excitement you could hold in your hands.

Pulp magazines, named for their rough-cut, pulpwood paper, were a vehicle for more amazing tales than Scheherazade could have told in a million and one nights. Set apart from higher-class slick magazines, printed on fancy glossy paper with quality artwork and superior production values, the pulps were for the rest of us, adventure story after adventure story for people who liked to read. Pulp fiction authors were no-holds-barred entertainers—real storytellers. They were more interested in a thrilling plot twist, a horrific villain or a white-knuckle adventure than they were in lavish prose or convoluted metaphors.

The sheer volume of tales released during this wondrous golden age remains unmatched in any other period of literary history—hundreds of thousands of published stories in over nine hundred different magazines. Some titles lasted only an issue or two; many magazines succumbed to paper shortages during World War II, while others endured for decades yet. Pulp fiction remains as a treasure trove of stories you can read, stories you can love, stories you can remember. The stories were driven by plot and character, with grand heroes, terrible villains, beautiful damsels (often in distress), diabolical plots, amazing places, breathless romances. The readers wanted to be taken beyond the mundane, to live adventures far removed from their ordinary lives—and the pulps rarely failed to deliver.

In that regard, pulp fiction stands in the tradition of all memorable literature. For as history has shown, good stories are much more than fancy prose. William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas—many of the greatest literary figures wrote their fiction for the readers, not simply literary colleagues and academic admirers. And writers for pulp magazines were no exception. These publications reached an audience that dwarfed the circulations of today’s short story magazines. Issues of the pulps were scooped up and read by over thirty million avid readers each month.

Because pulp fiction writers were often paid no more than a cent a word, they had to become prolific or starve. They also had to write aggressively. As Richard Kyle, publisher and editor of Argosy, the first and most long-lived of the pulps, so pointedly explained: The pulp magazine writers, the best of them, worked for markets that did not write for critics or attempt to satisfy timid advertisers. Not having to answer to anyone other than their readers, they wrote about human beings on the edges of the unknown, in those new lands the future would explore. They wrote for what we would become, not for what we had already been.

Some of the more lasting names that graced the pulps include H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Max Brand, Louis L’Amour, Elmore Leonard, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, John D. MacDonald, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein—and, of course, L. Ron Hubbard.

In a word, he was among the most prolific and popular writers of the era. He was also the most enduring—hence this series—and certainly among the most legendary. It all began only months after he first tried his hand at fiction, with L. Ron Hubbard tales appearing in Thrilling Adventures, Argosy, Five-Novels Monthly, Detective Fiction Weekly, Top-Notch, Texas Ranger, War Birds, Western Stories, even Romantic Range. He could write on any subject, in any genre, from jungle explorers to deep-sea divers, from G-men and gangsters, cowboys and flying aces to mountain climbers, hard-boiled detectives and spies. But he really began to shine when he turned his talent to science fiction and fantasy of which he authored nearly fifty novels or novelettes to forever change the shape of those genres.

Following in the tradition of such famed authors as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway, Ron Hubbard actually lived adventures that his own characters would have admired—as an ethnologist among primitive tribes, as prospector and engineer in hostile climes, as a captain of vessels on four oceans. He even wrote a series of articles for Argosy, called Hell Job, in which he lived and told of the most dangerous professions a man could put his hand to.

Finally, and just for good measure, he was also an accomplished photographer, artist, filmmaker, musician and educator. But he was first and foremost a writer, and that’s the L. Ron Hubbard we come to know through the pages of this volume.

This library of Stories from the Golden Age presents the best of L. Ron Hubbard’s fiction from the heyday of storytelling, the Golden Age of the pulp magazines. In these eighty volumes, readers are treated to a full banquet of 153 stories, a kaleidoscope of tales representing every imaginable genre: science fiction, fantasy, western, mystery, thriller, horror, even romance—action of all kinds and in all places.

Because the pulps themselves were printed on such inexpensive paper with high acid content, issues were not meant to endure. As the years go by, the original issues of every pulp from Argosy through Zeppelin Stories continue crumbling into brittle, brown dust. This library preserves the L. Ron Hubbard tales from that era, presented with a distinctive look that brings back the nostalgic flavor of those times.

L. Ron Hubbard’s Stories from the Golden Age has something for every taste, every reader. These tales will return you to a time when fiction was good clean entertainment and the most fun a kid could have on a rainy afternoon or the best thing an adult could enjoy after a long day at work.

Pick up a volume, and remember what reading is supposed to be all about. Remember curling up with a great story.

—Kevin J. Anderson

KEVIN J. ANDERSON is the author of more than ninety critically acclaimed works of speculative fiction, including The Saga of Seven Suns, the continuation of the Dune Chronicles with Brian Herbert, and his New York Times bestselling novelization of L. Ron Hubbard’s Ai! Pedrito!

Devil’s Manhunt

Chapter One

DESPERATION PEAK rises green out of six thousand square miles of parched Arizona desert, a deceptive and deadly lure. It has game, streams and gold—but

Reviews for Devil's Manhunt

[winnemucca · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Galaxy Audio Books has struck it rich again with L. Ron Hubbard's Devil's Manhunt Experience the thrill of the hunt and the teror of the prey. Again, Hubbard delights the listener with an unexpected conclusion.L. Ron Hubbard has been quoted as saying. "A person is either the effect of his environment or is able to have an effect upon his envirnment." Tim Beckdolt, the main character in the story, brings to life the essence of this quote.I've yet to hear the other two stories on the CDS. Our friend broke a shoulder the night before last and I'm taking him my Galaxy/Hubbard CDS today to listen to while he's recuperating. He loves reading and watching westerns, so The Devil's Manhunt along with the stories on Hubbard's The Magic Quirt will be sure to please.

[garyseverance-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

L. Ron Hubbard was a master of "Pulp" fiction because of his life of adventure and interaction in his work and travels with unique people throughout the world. Like Melville, London, and Hemingway Hubbard had the discipline to write stories based on his widely varied experiences and observations. He was able to sell approximately 80% of his submissions to the pulp magazines, so his writing was valued in the very competitive pulp market. The weekly or monthly pulp magazines produced in the 1930's and 1940's were low in price with rough cut pages, cheap brown pulp paper and garish art work on the cover. The goal of these publications was to offer stories that were well-written for reader excitement, easy comprehension, and education with basic, well-researched content related to historical periods and contemporary life.The Devil's Manhunt is a collection of three L. Ron Hubbard action stories in the category of "Westerns." The first story, the title of the collection, is a tale of a twenty-three year old man who has learned the tough trade of gold prospecting from grizzled veterans and has had success during six months of work on his own claim site. Murderous thieves steal Tim's bag of gold and set him free as a hunting target in the barren Arizona desert near Desperation Peak. The two armed criminals hunt down the unarmed Tim but are in for many surprises from the resourceful young prospector.The second story, Johnny, the Town Tamer, is a tale about a cattle rancher whose representative had been bilked out of payment for a herd brought to market the prior year. The undisputed boss of Thorpeville, George, had taken back the money in a crooked card game. Johnny and his top rider and friend big Mike teach George a lesson that no one messes with Texas ranchers and gets away with it.The last story, Stranger in Town, is the saga of corrupt Mesa lawmen who set up a hardware store clerk, Zeke to take the fall for a stagecoach robbery while the lawmen robbed the stagecoach and got away with the loot. Zeke runs away and hides in plain sight in a small western town, Dry Creek. He is hunted down by the corrupt sheriff who wants to get rid of the witness to his crime. The lesson here is that it pays to be part of a community in a rough town even if you are a solitary man and you were a complete a stranger only a short time ago.Reading this collection of pulp stories is a good way to spend a few hours in pure escapism written by a man who knew how to tell an exciting western tale. This is a shorter collection than the Hubbard collection, Under the Black Ensign (Stories from the Golden Age), I read before, but it is just as good as an exciting and fast reading experience.

[tpmcnulty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The pacing on this story is breathless. The action never lets up and the resolution is great. A real action-packed classic from the golden age of pulp fiction. I bought the paperback and then ordered the audio version for my car. This is pulp fiction western excitement from the glorious golden age! Highly Recommended!!

[tomdonaghey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

DEVIL’S MANHUNT is one of the latest offerings from Galaxy Press in their ongoing reissuing of L. Ron Hubbard’s classic pulp fiction stories. Hubbard, a master of many genres, wasn’t afraid to write on any thing from outer space to fantasy and crime busters, but this time it is the wild west and you can feel every wind devil blow and almost hear the crack of a “peacemaker” as the bullets whiz by you ear.The title story finds a lone miner out on a verdant island deep into the alkaline desert, striking it rich, only to have two desperados show up to not only steal his gold but enslave him until all of it is dug out. He has to find a way to outsmart these two and not only survive but keep his gold.Next up is JOHNNY, THE TOWN TAMER. Last year one of his men solfd the herd to a cheating thief who ran the town at the trail head, and now Johnny is out to get his money and pat a well earned lesson to a sneak and a hustler.Rounding out the book is STRANGER IN TOWN that tells the story of an innocent man, framed for murder and theft, being tracked down by a dirty law man. If he goes with the law, he knows he will be gunned down. If he shots the lawman, the town will lynch him. But he has to do something and soon.I enjoyed all three thrillers and can’t pick a favorite from among them. I’m giving this book four stars though it should be four and a half, but not five. Five stars are being reserved for the very best of Hubbard. I know I haven’t read it for my review but I hope to soon.Thank you to both the good people at LibraryThing and Galaxy press for this fine edition.

[bruce_deming_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent nail biter. Intense.Fine use of Mr Hubbard's real life experience with mining, tracking and his knowledge of weapons. Meticulous detail used in this story and realistic, consistent emotional attitudes of characters with the intense suspenseful story line portrayed superbly by the voice actors make this audio performance an unparalleled production.