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Around the Border they called him Breed. Part white, part Apache, he’d been christened Matthew Gunn, but the Apache had given him their own special name-Azul.

Right now, Breed was in one whole load of trouble. He’d killed two men and got a price on his head. What he didn’t know was that Fritz Baum, a bounty hunter with a taste for violent killing, had been paid a handsome sum for tracking down Breed and delivering him to a mysterious stranger in Cinqua. Baum’s reputation was second to none — but so was Breed’s when it came to dealing in death. And when the two of them clashed the fighting took on a whole new shade-death red!

JAMES A. MUIR

BREED 13:

BOUNTY HUNTER

BREED 13: BOUNTY HUNTER

By James A. Muir

First published by Sphere Books Ltd 1980

Copyright © James A. Muir 1980

This electronic edition published June 2024

Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by means (electronic, digital, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book / Text © Piccadilly Publishing

Series Editor: Mike Stotter

Published by Arrangement with the Author’s Estate

Visit www.piccadillypublishing.org to read more about our books.

The Breed Series

by James A Muir

The Lonely Hunt

The Silent Kill

Cry for Vengeance

Death Stage

Gallows Tree

Judas Goat

Time of the Wolf

Blood Debt

Blood-Stock!

Outlaw Road

The Dying and the Damned

Killer’s Moon

Bounty Hunter!

… and still to come:

Spanish Gold

Slaughter Time

Bad Habits

The Day of the Gun

The Color of Death

Blood Valley

Gundown!

Blood Hunt

Apache Blood

A nice guy to have around, as editor andfriend:

For Colin Murray

Chapter One

FRITZ BAUM WAS a big man. Standing just under six feet four inches and weighing around one hundred and eighty pounds, he was as solid as he was tall: there was no flab on him, just muscle. It was surprising that so large a man could move so fast, but Baum was quick like a cat. He needed to be: he was a bounty hunter.

His parents had emigrated to the promised land of America in the 1840s, buying a spread of land in East Texas where they raised squash and cotton and their only son. When the War Between the States broke out, Hans Baum had gone off with the Texas Volunteers to fight the men who said he shouldn’t use slaves. Fritz and his mother, Gerda, had worked the farm. In August of 1864 Hans Baum was killed defending Petersburg, and a year and a half later carpetbaggers had talked and bought Gerda Baum out of her farm. She used the money to book passage back to the old country, but when it came time to board the boat, Fritz had refused to join her.

Instead, he took the share his mother gave him and headed west.