Robert G. Slade

Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens ride down to Willow Wells and get a job at the Pellier Ranch, but find themselves confronted by mystery and danger. The trouble actually began 20 years earlier when three men robbed the Santa Dolores stage and found themselves loaded not with gold, but with the care of two hungry babies....

A blind man spends his days roaming the beaches of Kenya collecting shells, classifying them by feeling their whorls, spines and folds in his fingers. A young woman discovers that she can explore the inner world of an animal’s mind by touching its freshly dead body. A remarkable collection of stories which illuminate both the riotous dangers of the natural world and the rocky terrain of the human heart.

The Virginian, a foreman at Shiloh Ranch, carries a strong sense of justice. This wins him the heart of independent young schoolteacher Molly Stark, and finds his sworn enemy Trampas at the end of a gun.