The Black Rifle

The Pennsylvania frontier of 1754 could seem too deadly to endure. War parties swept from the protection of mountain strongholds to kill and destroy the white settlers invading their forests. Driven from their traditional homelands, Shawnee and Delaware bands trotted east along ancient warrior paths seeking vengeance. To the north, the Six Nations of Iroquois Confederacy possessed the might to drive all whites into the sea. Lured by land ownership, Jack Elan moved his small family west of the great Susquehanna River and beyond civilization’s comforting safety to wrench a living from the virgin forests and meadows of the Allegheny foothills. Toquisson, of the Shawnee, known as the Heart-Eater, also hunted the rich game lands. His discovery of Elan’s cabin nestled against Concocheague Mountain began a year long struggle to the death. The Black Rifle speaks of Jack Elan’s soul-devouring efforts to become a frontier killer capable of battling a Shawnee warrior, and of Elan’s search for a very special rifle to bring him final victory. Elan must harden his heart and his body. He must learn to shoot and scout beyond skills he had ever imagined. Then, tempered by the fires of massacre and blinding hatred, he must face in battle the savage enemy who had destroyed all that Elan had valued. Mentored by Rob Shatto, the unmatchable frontiersman who was raised among the Delaware and Blue Moccasin, the most renowned of all message carriers, Elan carries his fight to his enemy. Long out of print, these novels have become impossible to locate. It is Iron Brigade Publishing’s intent to reprint and make available all those soul-gripping stories. Arrowmaker, reprinted in 2000 was the first; The Black Rifle is the second.