Ace Double (#71372,1st printing) 1969 paperback. Condition is Fine (-): very tight and square with flat spine; age tanning is very mild and uniform; bare trace of wear on Tom West side. No stamps, marks or writing - a clean copy that looks unread. The edges still have some of that "new book" crispness.

An Ace Double from 1969, containing The Hostile Peaks by Louis Trimble, bound with Renegade Roundup, by Tom West. There are at least 2 other Ace-Double Westerns featuring this pair of authors.

The Hostile Peaks by Louis Trimble - (cover by ???, and frontispiece by ??; 127 pages.) Someone had stolen a shipment of Army guns and ammunition, and with the locak Indians being stirred up, this could mean trouble for the isolated settlers of that mountainous territory. Clint Larabee had been sent to find the missing guns, but by the time he was sure he knew where they were, there didn't seem to be much he was likely to be able to do about it. For one thing there were already 2 hardcases following right behind him on his trail, and for another there was the pack of desperate gun-runners up ahead. On all sides, nothing but rocks, mountains, snow - no way up, no way down, no way across. For Clint it sure looked like the end of the trail. He could stand his ground and freeze to death. Or he could move and take his chances on hot-lead poisoning. The choice was his - and there was no time to waste.

I used to think Trimble split his output between SF and Westerns, but a little research reveals he has been writing since the mid-Forties with 4 dozen books: about half are mysteries, a dozen or more westerns, and only 6 SF books from 1968-74.

(Bound with) Renegade Roundup by Tom West - (95 pages, cover by ???; frontispiece by ??.) Burt Craig was riding with the wolves, and he didn't much like the company. He'd joined that bandit gang in hope of getting back his own stake - and so far all he'd got was the chance to ride in another holdup, maybe stop lead, or get hung out of hand if he got caught. Who'd ever swallow a story that he'd only thrown in with the renegades just to wreck their workings and recover his own stolen dinero? No one around Cushman, for sure, not when the sheriff was the gang's ringleader!