Book : To Tame A Land A Novel - L'Amour, Louis

-Titulo Original : To Tame A Land: A Novel

-Fabricante :

Bantam

-Descripcion Original:

Rye Tyler was twelve when his father was killed in an Indian raid. Taken in by a mysterious stranger with a taste for books and an instinct for survival, Rye is schooled in the hard lessons of life in the West. But after killing a man, he is forced to leave his new home. He rides lonely mountain passes and works on dusty cattle drives until he finds a job breaking horses. Then he meets Liza Hetrick, and in her eyes he sees his future. After establishing himself as marshal of Alta, he returns, only to discover that Liza has been kidnapped. Tracking her to Robbers’ Roost, Rye is forced to face the man who taught him all he knows about books, guns, and friendship. Two old friends-one woman: Who will walk away? About the Author Our foremost storyteller of the American West, Louis L’Amour has thrilled a nation by chronicling the adventures of the brave men and woman who settled the frontier. There are more than three hundred million copies of his books in print around the world. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One It was Indian country, and when our wheel busted, none of them would stop. They just rolled on by and left us setting there, my pap and me. Me, I was pushing a tall twelve by then and could cuss most as good as Pap, and we both done some cussin then. Bagley, the one Pap helped down to Ash Hollow that time, he got mighty red around the ears, but he kept his wagon rollin. Most folks, those days, were mighty helpful, but this outfit sort of set their way by the captain. He was Big Jack McGarry. When the wheel busted, somebody called out and we swung back. Big Jack had no liking for Pap because Pap never took nothing off him, and because Pap had the first look-in with Mary Tatum, which Big Jack couldnt abide. He swung that fine black horse of his back and he set there looking at us. We had turned to and were getting that wheel off, fixing to get it repaired if we could. Sorry, Tyler. You know what I said. This is Indian country. Goin through here, we keep rollin no matter what. Well wait a spell at the springs, though. You can catch us there. Then he turned his horse and rode off, and nobody else in the wagons said by word or look that they even seen us setting there. Pap, he didnt waste no more time. He looked after them, his face kind of drawn down and gray like, and then he turned to me and he said, Son, I dont mind for myself. Its you Im thinkin of. But maybe itll be all right. You take that there gun, and you set up high and watch sharp. So that was the way it was, and Pap aworking to fix that wheel so we could go on. He was a good man at such things, and he had built many a wagon in his day, and had done some fine cabinetwork, too. He worked steady and I kept my eyes open, but there was mighty little to see. It was a long rolling grass plain wherever a body looked. Here and there was draws, but I couldnt see into them. The wind stirred that tall grass, bending it over in long rolls, the way the sea must look, and it was green-gray and then silver in the changing light and wind. Overhead the sky was wide and pale blue, with just a few lazy clouds adrifting. We had us a good Conestoga wagon and six head of cattle, good big oxen, to haul it. We had two horses and two saddles, and inside the wagon was Paps tools, our grub, bedding, and a few odds and ends like Mas picture, which Pap kept by him, no matter what. Pap had swapped for a couple of Joslyn breech-loading carbines before we left Kansas, and we each had us a handgun, Shawk & McLanahan six-shooters, caliber .36, and good guns, too. Like McGarry said, this was Indian country. Not two weeks ago the Indians had hit a wagon train, smaller than ours, killing four men and a woman. They hit it again a few miles west, and they killed two more men. Ours was a big train, well armed and all, but Big Jack, I seen the look in his eyes when he sat there watching Pa