The Revenge of Florida Jack

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Ernest Haycox's The Revenge of Florida Jack opens with a ranchhouse confrontation that instantly defines a harsh Western world: Jim Kitchin, a powerful and good-humored boss, turns furious when he catches Florida Jack, a sly and unstable herder, abusing a sheep dog. The humiliation drives Jack into a fever of resentment, and what begins as a clash of temperaments becomes a calculated campaign of revenge. In saloons, on lonely trails, and in isolated cabins, he spreads poisonous rumors to set Kitchin against the feared gunman Belisarius Tuggs, exploiting the frontier code of honor until suspicion hardens into feud. As the lies take hold, Jack's scheme grows more dangerous. A stolen rifle, a fatal shot, and a forged challenge push the conflict toward open violence in Woolville, where the whole town gathers for the expected showdown. But the duel exposes the truth behind the feud, and Jack's final reckless attack ends with Kitchin killing him in the street. Woolville treats the death as an act of God, a grimly practical judgment that closes the story with dark irony, frontier justice, and a brutal lesson in rumor, pride, and revenge.