FROM THE JACKET: "Bill Gulick is obviously on the side of deviltry and disorder and his characters have a warmth and likability that you can't resist. He's given his own special twist to the ancient and disreputable American tradition of the tall tale and comes up with some of the freshest entertainment of the season..." FROM THE FOREWARD by the author: "If all the ornery reprobates of the Old West that deserved hanging had been hanged the population of the country this side of the Mississippi would be considerably smaller than it is today. It's lots more fun to write about ornery, contrary characters than it is about good ones. Upright people are sadly limited in the things they can do, but the ornery character can do anything that comes into his head. The stories in this collection have one thing in common: they're full of uninhibited characters whose antics I had fun describing..."