Arizona Ranger

A Son's Blood is a story of vengeance and honor. No longer a young man, Sam Allen is trying to convince himself that he can be content retiring to a rocking chair on his front porch. The death of his only son serves as an excuse to the former Arizona Ranger to saddle up and bring the killers to justice. Sam is an educated man, the product of southern aristocracy. Sam was a commander in the Confederate Army, and had returned from the war to find his parents dead and the plantation taken by carpet baggers. Now a widower, he is surprised to learn that the killers of his son were vaqueros working for his wife's Mexican cousins. The Mexicans, led by the patrician Alejandro Herrera, are confronted by Apaches led by the fiecrce warriors, Geronimo and Juh. At the same time, Sam is wounded by an Apache warparty and rescued by Papago warriors. While Alejandro and his men are stripped of everything they own and forced to walk naked across the unrelenting desert, Sam is taken to a Papago village where he is nursed back to health by Shashani, who once bore him a son. The rekindling of their relationship doesn't deter the old Ranger from returning to the chase as soon as he is able. Captured by the Apache Kid in an unforgettable battle in Cazador Canyon near the Mexico Border, Sam is taken to the El Mundo Rancho, where he is confronted by Alejandro and his powerful father, the Baron of Sonora. Determined to avenge his son's death, Sam challenges Alejandro to a duel which he cannot refuse. The ensuing sword fight is a not-to-be-missed battle between a strong, cocky youth and a wiser, more experienced man. What makes A Son's Blood stand alone among adventure stories isn't only that Sam Allen is older than the typical western hero. The outstanding feature may by the author's intimate relationship to the desert, a place his family settled a century-and-a-half ago. Names, descriptions, characters, even judicious use of Papago and Apache languages gives one a personal feeling of old Arizona. A Son's Blood is the way it was. Alejandro is the eldest son of Don Edmundo Herrera Marquis, the Baron of Sonora, owner of the largest ranch in the Mexican state bordering Arizona. Returning from a cattle drive, Alejandro and his vaqueros stop in Florence, along the Gila River. Their celebration at the La Paloma Saloon results in the shooting of Tom Allen, Sam's son. Pursuing the Mexicans, Sam stumbles on an Apache warparty. Wounded, he is rescued by Papago warriors who are chasing the Apache raiders. Mui'hapot, the Arrowmaker, rescues Sam and takes the unconscious man to San Javier del Bac, the ancient Spanish mission where there is a Papago village and a woman from Sam's past. Shashani, Blackbird or Woman with Thick Black Hair, bore Sam a son but hadn't seen the tall Ranger for eighteen long years, years that he had been married to another woman, Carmen Lyon Marquis. Shashani nurses Sam back to health and, when she learns that he is a widower, entertains hope of resurrecting their relationship. Carmen Lyon had inherited the La Cuerreria Ranch, the most prosperous in souther Arizona. Sam inherited it from her. He hadn't met her cousins from Mexico and never imagined he would be pursuing one of them.