TEXAS BORDER SHERIFF

Beginning today, I will post small excerpts from my novel, "Texas Border Sheriff" to be published in e-format by Amazon.Com in approximately three months. Hardcover copies will be available by Labor Day, 2010.



This is a complex story involving complex characters, controversial themes and different points of view. However, like all novels, hopefully, you will regard it as entertaining.



I welcome your comments. Positive or negative. I have a thick skin (born in "da Bronx."



PREFACE

October 17, 1835

Stephen Austin returned from his imprisonment in Mexico on a hot, humid day in South Texas. He was in pain; a severe pain that tore at his lower stomach muscles and his lower back. A weaker man would have found this pain to be unbearable. But Austin was Texan to the core. So he drank strong whiskey and went about performing the tasks he believed the Good Lord had cut out for him.

There were almost one thousand families living in South Central Texas with no protection. Their lives were at risk daily, from Apache Indians, vicious outlaws like John Wesley Hardin and Wild Bill Longley and roving bands of Mexican soldiers.

It was a bad situation that needed fixing.

Austin secured a small amount of funding, some strong and well-bred horses, forty-five brave men and the services of Silas J. Parker, a retired U.S. Army Cavalry officer. The Texas Rangers were born.