The California Trail: The Trail Drive, Book 5 (Trail Drive S.) - Softcover

Compton, Ralph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312951698 ISBN 13: 9780312951696

Verlag: ST MARTINS PR, 1994

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An extraordinary saga of the trail-blazing cowboys who made their fortune
driving cattle from Texas to the Great Frontier.

Across the Pecos, the Rio Colorado and La Panza mountains, the Texans and their longhorns kept charging-all the way to California gold!

Between The Bandera Range And California, They Faced All The Challenges Of Man And God, But Nothing Could Ever Make Them Quit.

The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million
maverick longhorns and the brains, brawn and boldness to drive them
north to where the money was. Now, Ralph Compton brings this violent and magnificent time to life in an extraordinary epic series based on the history-making trail drives.

The California Trail

Gold fever had hit California, and suddenly, the land was full of hungry pioneers. For Gil and Van Austin, two Texas brothers, it meant the chance to sell well-grazed longhorns after years of hard ranching and a treacherous cattle drive up through Mexico. The only trouble was that California was on the other side of a searing desert, swollen rivers, a barrage of Indian attacks, and a whole passel of outlaw trouble. And while the Texans and their men were ready and willing to take it all on, there was one thing they weren't prepared for: the ultimate act of treachery and deceit in a land of schemers, dreamers and gold!

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ralph Compton stood six-foot-eight without his boots. His first novel in the Trail Drive series, The Goodnight Trail, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for best debut novel. He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist before turning to writing westerns. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1998.

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From bestselling author Ralph Compton comes the bold and breathtaking saga of a trail-blazing cattle drive in the blistering heat of the California gold rush…

The only riches Texans had left after the Civil War were five million maverick longhorns—and the brains, brawn, and boldness to drive them north where the money was. But it all took a wild and dangerous turn in 1849, as the trail was overrun with dreamers, schemers, and gold…

THE CALIFORNIA TRAIL

Gold fever has hit California, and suddenly the land is full of hungry pioneers. For Texas brothers Gil and Van Austin, it means a chance to sell their well-grazed longhorns after years of hard ranching and a death-defying cattle drive up through Mexico. The only thing that stands between them and California is a scorching desert, swollen rivers, a barrage of Indian attacks, and a passel of outlaws. And while the Texans are ready and willing to take it all on, there's one thing they're not prepared for: the ultimate act of treachery, greed, and back-stabbing deceit…

"Very seldom in literature have the legends of the Old West been so vividly painted."

—Tombstone Epitaph

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The California Trail

By Ralph Compton

St. Martin's Paperbacks

Copyright © 1994 Ralph Compton
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780312951696

1

Once Gil and Van Austin had agreed upon the trail drive to the California goldfields, they wasted no time in approaching Clay Duval with the proposal.
“You’re right,” said Clay, “this is somethin’ we can’t afford to pass up. If the kind of money they’re talkin’ about is for real, this one trail drive could set us up for life. We’d never have to sell another cow. Trouble is, I don’t know if I. should feel flattered that you’re leavin’ the Bandera spread in my hands, or insulted that you reckon you can take a herd of longhorns on such a drive without me.”
“Take it as a compliment,” said Gil. “Remember the last trail drive, when the both of us ended up in a Mexican juzgado? Next time, it may be a California juzgado. We may need you on the outside, with a keg of powder.”*
“Don’t laugh,” said Van. “He may be more right than he knows. We’re only lookin’ at the potential reward of such a drive, without considering all we may have to survive to reach it. We could hire a segundo and the riders to look after the ranches, the longhorns, and the horses, but there’s more at stake than that. I want to know that little Van and Dorinda are safe, all the time I’m away.”
“And there’s Rosa,” said Gil.
“Whoa,” said Clay. “She’s your querida.* She’ll grab a horse and light out after you. You want me to rope her out of the saddle and hogtie her till you get back?”
“We still have some time,” said Gil. “I’ll talk to her.” He looked forward to that with all the enthusiasm of a man about to be bucked off into a cactus patch and then stomped.
“You’re only leavin’ me Solano,” said Clay, “but with Mariposa and Estanzio helping, we should be caught up on the gentling of horses before you’re ready to move out. Now at your place, there’ll be only the cook, old Stump. We’ll need a good dozen riders while you’re gone, and I don’t mean just men with horse and cow savvy. Sooner or later the Comanches are goin’ to come after us; if not for our hair, then for our horses. Same holds true for rustlers.”
“Why don’t you ride to San Antone tomorrow,” said Gil, “and make known our need for hard-ridin’, fast-shootin’ men? While you’re there, stop at the mercantile and have them order us new weapons. I want two dozen of the new Dragoon Colt six-shooters, with the seven and a half inch barrel, and a thousand rounds of ammunition for each. If possible, I’d like the same number of .50 caliber Hawken rifles, out of St. Louis. Get plenty of horseshoes too, along with an extra set of necessary tools. I’ll want enough shoes for every horse on the trail drive to have an extra set. We’ll be taking a sixty-horse remuda and five packhorses.”
“My God,” said Clay, “do we have that kind of credit in town?”
“We do,” said Gil, “and more. Remember, we’ve been supplyin’ beef to the town for nearly six years, gettin’ only credit. Nobody’s had any gold.”
“That reminds me of something,” said Van. “The outfit’s been taking wages in cows. Do you aim to let that four thousand head include some or all of their stock?”
“I’m inclined to,” said Gil. “I think it’s fair. We could allow every rider to take as many as fifty, without it hurtin’ us.”
“That’s more than generous,” said Clay. “All right, I’ll ride to town tomorrow and get the word out that we’re needin’ riders, and I’ll drop this list of needs off at the mercantile. I just hope they have credit enough to buy for us.”
“So do I,” said Gil.
For three days after she had learned of the impending trail drive, Rosa had sulked in silence. Not so much because she wouldn’t be going, Gil felt, but because he would be. She had become so possessive, something had to be done. Thanks to Dorinda and Angelina, Rosa already had a better education than most frontier females, but Gil decided she was ready for something more formal. Such as a four-year girl’s school, in New Orleans or St. Louis. If the trail drive to California proved even half as successful as they hoped, he would have the money for such an extravagance. But it soon became apparent that they wouldn’t be able to begin the drive until after the first of the year, and that Rosa had ideas that exceeded Gil’s wildest imagination.
She had always respected his privacy in the cabin they shared, and Gil had respected hers. It came as a shock when, one night, he awakened from a sound sleep and found Rosa in his room. She stood at the foot of his bed, and how long she had been there, he didn’t know. While he wasn’t sure why she was there, he had a terrifying suspicion. His first look at the girl dispelled forever his thoughts of her as a child. The light of a full moon shone through the window, and Rosa stood there stark naked, a woman in every sense of the word! Gil almost stopped breathing, but forced himself to continue slowly and evenly, lest she know that he was awake. But his years on the hazardous frontier had so conditioned him, that another’s breathing could awaken him, and this Rosa knew. Still he played possum, fearing that she might actually get into bed with him, forcing him to acknowledge her presence. Finally she turned away and, like a pale ghost, swept slowly through the open door, out of his sight. He slept no more that night, discarding one idea after another, a vivid picture of the naked Rosa burned into his mind. When at last the eastern sky paled from gray to rose, Gil got up. He would say nothing of Rosa’s nocturnal visit, covertly watching her. It came as no surprise when he found her in her usual garb, breakfast all but ready. He sat down and she poured his coffee. She returned the pot to the stove, and when she turned back to face him, the half smile on her lips was more terrifying than the frown she had worn for the past three days. Something in his expression told her what she wished to know, and she was glorying in it! She spoke not a word, but sat down across the table from him, sipping her own coffee. Her enigmatic smile remained, and in her eyes was the wisdom of a thousand years. Chill fingers caressed his spine, and he sat there looking into his half-empty cup. . . .
When Gil and Van Austin had departed, Clay Duval sat at the kitchen table so immersed in his own thoughts that Angelina had to speak to him twice before he heard her.
“They are going without you,” she said. “Do you have regrets?”
“No,” he said. “I was just wonderin’ why Dorinda didn’t come out breathin’ fire and smoke when Van decided to go.”
“Dorinda understands. Van is concerned about his brother.”
Angelina had pulled out a chair and sat across the table from him. His eyebrows lifted, Clay looked at her, and she laughed.
“Gil is restless, lost, vulnerable,” she said.
“So Van is goin’ along to protect him,” said Clay. “Querida, Gil Austin is about as vulnerable as a lobo wolf.”
“I do not question his ability to...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: ST MARTINS PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1994
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312951698
• ISBN 13: 9780312951696
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 384
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar