Max Brand 
Silvertip’s Strike 

In Silvertip’s Strike, Steve Wycomb leaves his ranch to three of his enemies, hoping that it leads to violence and bloodshed. His wishes inevitably come true. Excerpt: ‘When Jim Silver came over the last divide, he could see the ranch house among the low foothills, and beyond the foothills was the desert. It looked like a green smudge, olive-green drab; but he knew that at close hand the green would thin out to a sparse scattering of shrubs, all of which were arrayed in foliage that was no more than a mist, the leaves turning their edges up to split the full heat of the sun that would have withered them…’