Brand, Max: The Seventh Man. V1. 26 Jun 2012
 

Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 – May 12, 1944) was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns under the pen name Max Brand. His other pseudonyms include George Owen Baxter, George Evans, David Manning, John Frederick, Peter Morland, George Challis and Frederick Frost.

Excerpt
A man under thirty needs neighbors and to stop up the current of his life with a long silence is like obstructing a river—eventually the water either sweeps away the dam or rises over it, and the stronger the dam the more destructive is that final rush to freedom. Vic Gregg was on the danger side of thirty and he lived alone in the mountains all that winter.