Patten is considered a master of western fiction, having received three Spur Awards. Here, for the first time in paperback, are two of his finest short novels. In "The Golden Magnet, " a young woman in Denver City becomes the owner of a stagecoach line when her father is killed. In "Trail to Vicksburg, " a man yearns to join the Confederate Army but instead must drive his family's cattle into Union territory.