Louis LAmour - Off the Mangrove Coast

Praise for the work of
LOUIS LAMOUR

MONUMENT ROCK
[A] compelling blend of explosive action, period detail, humor, and insights about human nature.
USA Today

END OF THE DRIVE
Awesome immediacy, biting as creosote slapped on a fence post.
Kirkus Reviews

BEYOND THE GREAT SNOW MOUNTAINS
LAmours brassy women and dusty men keep the action of these cinematic stories hot These adventure tales offer their share of the high drama LAmour is famous for.
Publishers Weekly

OFF THE MANGROVE COAST
LAmour was a man who lived life to the fullest. Fortunately for the rest of us, he remembered the details and possessed the talent to bring those experiences to life on paper.
Booklist

Bantam Books by Louis LAmour
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NOVELS

Bendigo Shafter

Borden Chantry

Brionne

The Broken Gun

The Burning Hills

The Californios

Callaghen

Catlow

Chancy

The Cherokee Trail

Comstock Lode

Conagher

Crossfire Trail

Dark Canyon

Down the Long Hills

The Empty Land

Fair Blows the Wind

Fallon

The Ferguson Rifle

The First Fast Draw

Flint

Guns of the Timberlands

Hanging Woman Creek

The Haunted Mesa

Heller with a Gun

The High Graders

High Lonesome

Hondo

How the West Was Won

The Iron Marshal

The Key-Lock Man

Kid Rodelo

Kilkenny

Killoe

Kilrone

Kiowa Trail

Last of the Breed

Last Stand at Papago Wells

The Lonesome Gods

The Man Called Noon

The Man from Skibbereen

The Man from the Broken Hills

Matagorda

Milo Talon

The Mountain Valley War

North to the Rails

Over on the Dry Side

Passin Through

The Proving Trail

The Quick and the Dead

Radigan

Reillys Luck

The Rider of Lost Creek

Rivers West

The Shadow Riders

Shalako

Showdown at Yellow

Butte Silver Canyon Sitka

Son of a Wanted Man Taggart

The Tall Stranger

To Tame a Land

Tucker

Under the Sweetwater

Rim Utah Blaine

The Walking Drum

Westward the Tide

Where the Long Grass Blows

SHORT-STORY

COLLECTIONS

Off the Mangrove Coast

Beyond the Great Snow Mountains

Bowdrie

Bowdries Law

Buckskin Run

Dutchmans Flat

End of the Drive

The Hills of Homicide

Law of the Desert Born

Long Ride Home

Lonigan

Monument Rock Night over the Solomons

The Outlaws of Mesquite

The Rider of the Ruby Hills

Riding for the Brand

The Strong Shall Live

The Trail to Crazy Man

Valley of the Sun

War Party

West from Singapore

West of Dodge

Yondering

SACKETT TITLES

Sacketts Land

To the Far Blue Mountains

The Warriors Path

Jubal Sackett

Ride the River

The Daybreakers

Sackett

Lando

Mojave Crossing

Mustang Man

The Lonely Men

Galloway

Treasure Mountain

Lonely on the Mountain

Ride the Dark Trail

The Sackett Brand

The Sky-Liners

THE HOPALONG CASSIDY NOVELS

The Riders of the High Rock

The Rustlers of West

Fork The Trail to Seven

Pines Trouble Shooter

NONFICTION

Education of a Wandering Man

Frontier

THE SACKETT COMPANION: A Personal Guide to the Sackett Novels

ATRAIL OF MEMORIES : The Quotations of Louis LAmour, compiled by Angelique LAmour

POETRY

Smoke from This Altar

CONTENTS

A brutal blow in the ribs jerked Tandy Moore from a sound sleep. Gasping, he rolled into a fetal position and looked up to see a brake-man standing over him with his foot drawn back for another kick. With a lunge Tandy was on his feet, his dark eyes blazing. Fists cocked, he started for the brakeman, who backed suddenly away. Unload! he said harshly. Get off! An be quick about it!

Tandy was a big young man with wide shoulders and a sun-darkened face, darkened still further by a stubble of black beard. He chucked with cold humor.

Nope, Tandy said grimly, and with relish. If you want me off, you put me off! Come on, Im going to like this!

Instead of a meek and frightened tramp, the brakeman had uncovered a wolf with bared teeth. The brakeman backed away still farther.

You get off! he insisted. If that bull down to the yards finds you here, hell report it an Ill get chewed out!

Tandy Moore relaxed a bit. You watch yourself, mister! You can lose teeth walkin up an kickin a guy that way! He grabbed the edge of the gondola and lifted himself to the top, then swung his feet over to the ladder. Say, Jack? What town is this anyway? Not that it makes much difference.

Astoria, Oregon. End of the line.

Thanks. Tandy climbed down the ladder, gauged the speed of the train, and dropped off, hitting the cinders on the run.

As though it had been planned for him, a path slanted down off the grade and into a dense jungle of brush that lined the sides and bottom of a shallow ditch. He slowed and started down the path.

Astoria was almost home, but he wasnt going home. There was nothing there for him anymore. He trotted along near the foot of a steeply slanting hill. He could smell the sea and the gray sky was spitting a thin mist of rain.

At the bottom of the muddy path lay a mossy gray plank bridging a trickle of water, and beyond it the trail slanted up and finally entered a patch of woods surrounded by a wasteland of logged-off stumps.

Almost as soon as Moore entered the thicket, he smelled the smoke of a campfire. He stopped for a moment, brushing at his baggy, gray tweed trousers with his hand. He wore a wool shirt open at the neck, and a worn leather jacket. His razor, comb, and toothbrush lay in one pocket of the jacket. He had no other possessions. He wore no hat, and his black hair was a coarse mass of unruly curls. As presentable as a hobo could be, he started forward.