SYNOPSIS

Bret Maverick's knowledge of the location of a valuable gold claim on Indian land in the Black Hills is the only thing keeping him and two others alive. He uses all his poker skills in a game with no cards, and a map to the gold claim is his only ace in the hole.

ENCYCLOPEDIA MAVERICANA

Beaver Creek • Black Hills • Black Hills Gold Rush • Boston • Dakota Territory • Dodge City • Fallon, Mart • Fallon, Rip • Fallon, Wes • Fallon Ranch • free gold • grass snake • Great Sioux Reservation • Harris, Linda • Harris, Sam  • Harris, Timmy • Harris Mine • hombre • Indian agency • Jackson • lobo • loco • Matson • Maverick, Bret • McLean • Nebraska • Packsaddle Station • Pine Hill • sand lizard • sidewinder • Simmons • Sioux • Sioux headman • solitaire • stacked • stagecoach driver • Stoney Gap • straight flush • Taylor, Dave • Taylor, Ella • Thorn Canyon • Tomah Stage Lines • Tibbs • Treaty of Fort Laramie • Twin Bluffs

Listings in italics are not specifically mentioned by name in the story, but are inferred through other contextual references.

FURTHER READING

"That Packsaddle Affair" by Louis L'Amour (as Jim Mayo) — Collected in "The Outlaws of the Mesquite" — Bantam Books (May 1, 1990). Originally published in Texas Rangers, June 1952

The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground; Jeffrey Ostler, — Viking Adult, July 22, 2010