title: Gideon Hartman
author: Rogers, R. William
description: Sheriff Gideon Hartman is not only fast on the draw, but quick to pull the trigger as well, especially when a favorable result involves reward money...that being, reward money that is sorely needed to sustain the town’s church and thereby satisfy the Pastor Hartman side of him.
  But being stuck in the sleepy little wide spot in the trail known as Mischief, doesn’t often bode well for many hombres of note happening by in that arid part of South Texas. So when a pretty young gal from down Cotulla way shows up with a need for enlisting the services of the fast gun folks have been talking about who keeps Mischief clean of, well...mischief, I’d like to say that he succumbs to her irresistible charms, but in actuality, it’s the reward prospects associated with taking out the hired guns who are on the payroll of a ‘ruthless land-grabbing cow-pattie of a man’—those are her words, not mine—who is bent on acquiring her ranch by any means necessary.
  With the promise of a lost gold mine being somewhere out there on the Rocking Double R Ranch, setting the stage for Gideon doing what he can to help Sheila and her brother, Jake, rid the town of Elbert Thayer and his bunch of henchmen, thwarting the planned takeover becomes increasingly complicated as a result of not only outright murder, but deceit on the part of one of the Rocking Double R’s own trusted wranglers.
  Through all of this, the ensuing relationship between Gideon and Sheila Robinson is one that quickly develops into a mutual love and respect for one another that gets increasingly convoluted because of the bounty hunter side of Gideon getting in the way to the point where the Lord God Almighty finally sees fit to take a hand in it