A bitter enemy of Blue Pete, Bill Scarway, the murderous fast-shooting outlaw, escapes the Mounties to Medicine Hat-to ride, as "Trigger" Sallows, for the Diamond K outfit. Inspector Barker, determined to get the elusive Scarway, dead or alive, asks Blue Pete to help capture him. Blue Pete-his own private score to settle with Scarway-refuses, though he knows that killing and cattle-rustling inevitably follow the outlaw's trail. In the great spring round-up near the Cypress Hills the stage is cunningly set for the show-down. Scarway, ace gunman, faces for the first time on equal terms the death-dealing guns of Blue Pete.

Once again Blue Pete features in this high-speed Western. As usual, on the side of border justice, he is marked down by his enemies for vengeance; and Pete, taking the law into his own hands, is hunted by the Mounted Police. On the prairies and mountain trails of the border a desperate double duel of wits and guns is fought out but the tough little half-breed finally triumphs in spite of the Mounties misgivings.

Blue Pete, in his role of undercover helper of the RCMP, once more sets out to bring justice and retribution to a group of bank-robbers who had held up a bank in Red Deer. Ring-leader of the bandits is Flying Cloud, an Indian with a forked tongue, who tries to outwit the half-breed on his trail and in doing so start a feud between two neighbouring camps. Mountain Stream, a wise chief, sees through Flying Cloud's game, and his friendship for Blue Pete remains unshaken. But Brown Tepee is won over by Flying Cloud's easy promises. He overcomes his fear of the long arm of the Mounties, and joins forces with Flying Cloud. But Blue Pete is more than a match for both of them. Time and again he foils their cunning moves to destroy him and his friends, and finally he is able to defeat them in the very moment of their triumph. Yet even Blue Pete has to learn afresh that he cannot accomplish all he sets out to do without help from Mira, the amazing white woman who married him and shares his wild, untamed life.

Into Medicine Hat, just before the year's big beef roundup, drift four cow-punchers from across the Border. Everything about Slick Jordan, their leader, stamps him as a dude, except the way he whirls a rope and handles his steel-dust broncho. When Jordan singles out Blue Pete for his attention, Inspector Barker, of the Mounted Police, has a hunch that trouble is about to follow in the wake of the newcomers. He learns how right his hunch was when Sergeant Mahon, Blue Pete's friend, reports on the strange happenings that delay the roundup. Blue Pete finds his time fully occupied keeping check on Jordan and his companions, who have hired out to the T-Inverted R and promptly ran foul of its foreman, Tully Mason. Secret attempts at murder and covert rustling across the Border step up the tempo of this new story in which the popular Blue Pete again proves that he can think faster than the next man, and that for him, at least, the dark expanse of the Cypress Hills holds no secrets.

Blue Pete, secretly chosen by the Mounted Police to capture an Indian murderer, in his characteristic way picks up the trail and follows it into the mountains. He becomes involved in a bank-robbery that earns him a new and implacable enemy who dogs his path throughout the chase of the murderer-a perilous, unrelenting chase in the depth of winter. Disguised as an Indian, Blue Pete moves from tribe to tribe, helped and hindered by the red men. He faces zero cold, wild animals, and flying bullets, and all the time he must keep secret the task he works at. Finally, he faces a dilemma where duty and instinct struggle for mastery.

WHAT THIS STORY IS ABOUT As much to serve his own ends as to help the authorities Blue Pete went to the aid of the Mounties in rounding up a mysterious cattle rustler who did not shrink even from murder. How, with his characteristic genius for finding trouble, Blue Pete was soon at grips with his old friend Sergeant Mahon; how he saved the Sergeant's life and all but lost his own; and how as a result of his efforts he was himself arrested for murder only to be ultimately vindicated are stirringly told in this grand, hundred-thrills-a-minute yarn. "The most popular cowboy character in fiction," is how Truth describes Blue Pete. "Mr. Allan has the technique of the Wild West at his finger tips"-an opinion which is amply confirmed by this rollicking, swift-moving narrative of the great open spaces.

Blue Pete was not a rancher-with that Indian blood he had to have some excitement in his life. Inspector Barker makes Blue Pete and unofficial detective to do a task that the North-west Mounted Police cannot officially, lawfully, fulfill. This job takes Blue Pete west past Fitzhugh (Jasper, today), past the British Columbia border wherein the Mounties have no authority to work. Here Pete makes too many new 'friends', each of which may be a deadly enemy! Life in the end-of-steel village is exciting, even without his detective work!

The Story: In this exhilarating, fast-moving yarn, Blue Pete, against the express wish of Inspector Barker of the Royal Mounted Police, sets out to avenge the brutal murder of a rancher and his wife. Once again, relying on his ready wit and the lightning draw of his heavy six-shooter, he justifies his action and beats the murderers-but only after he has found himself in the most desperate situation of his chequered career. "Blue Pete," the critics agree, "is the most famous cowboy in fiction." His reckless, snap-shooting exploits have proved immensely popular in a score of thrilling novels. This new one is the equal of any.

Blue Pete, that most famous cowboy whose adventures have been recorded in a long line of thrilling novels, is here involved in a strange and dangerous mission on behalf of the Mounted Police. Alone he has to discover the secret of the insurrection which the mysterious OGreat ChiefO of the Indians is planning: alone he penetrates to the mountain stronghold of the rebellious Indians where capture would mean a slow and agonizing death. OLuke Allan, O says Truth, Ohas the technique of the Wild West at his fingertips.O This latest Blue Pete yarn of galloping hooves and gripping, snap-shooting action is one of his best.

Blue Pete was a half-breed from Montana. He moved to the Cypress Hills, near Medicine Hat, Alberta when things got to hot for him in the States. He had been a cattle rustler but once in Alberta he was warned by a young Mountie that he would be quickly arrested and punished if he did not follow Canadian laws. Blue Pete and his pinto pony, Whiskers, could choose their employer on any of the ranches of the west; they were the best team available, knowledgeable and hard working. Blue Pete found a good friend in Corporal Mahon, his young Mountie friend. And Mahon had his problems with criminals in the area, leading to Blue Pete's trials. This friendship, and Blue Pete's adventures lasted for about 25 novels. Blue Pete: Half Breed is the first of those adventures.