The heart of the American West lives in Peter Dawson's stories, with characters that blaze a trail over a land of frontier dreams and nightmares and across a country coming of age. Sometimes, as in "A Tinhorn Takes a Tank Town," the conflict has to do with murder and power, as when High-Card Stevens goes up against a crooked saloon owner. Sometimes, as in "Unwanted Gold," it is brother against brother, as when Dave Sanders finds his older brother, whom he hasn't seen for ten years, and is unwittingly drawn into an enterprise that leads to dire consequences.