2014 Short Fiction Spur Finalist V.J. Rose takes us back into the lives of Dudford Washburn and his motley crew in this classic adventure tale of the Old American West.

After the Civil War, rancher and muleskinner Dudford Washburn returns to San Antonio to find that his wife has unexpectedly divorced him. Determined to make enough money to win her back, he comes up with a scheme to herd longhorns across the wilds of West Texas in order to sell them to the army posts in New Mexico for a huge profit.

It's so dangerous, the only cowhands he can find are green-under-the-collar boys who don't know any better. To round out his ramshackle crew, Dud is forced to take along his feuding relatives who have their own reasons for going. Everyone else believes they are about to embark on a suicide mission through hell, but Dud is convinced fortune awaits at the end of the trail...

They'll have to be bull hide tough to survive the harsh west...