Rivers West: A Novel [Paperback]

His dream was to build magnificent steamboats to ply the rivers of the American frontier. But when Jean Talon began his journey westward, he stumbled upon a deadly conspiracy involving a young woman’s search to find her missing brother, and a ruthless band of renegades. Led by the brazen Baron Torville, this makeshift army of opportunists is plotting a violent takeover of the Louisiana Territory. Jean swears to find a way to stop this daring plan. If he doesn’t, it will not only put an end to all his dreams; it will change the course of history—and destroy the promise of the American frontier.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.A ghost trail, a dark trail, a trail endlessly winding.  A dark cavern under enormous trees, down which blew a cold wind that skimmed the pools with ice.  A corduroy road made from logs laid side by side, logs slippery with rotting vegetation from the swamp.

Here and there a log had sunk deep, leaving a cleft into which a suddenly plunged foot could mean a broken leg, and on either side of the swamp ... well, some said it was bottomless.  Horses had sunk there, never to be seen again-and men, also.

My father's house lay several days behind me, back of a shoulder on the Quebec shore above the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  For days I had been walking southward.  An owl glided past with great, slow wings, and out in the swamp some unseen creature moved, seemed to pause, listen.

Was that a step behind me?

Astride a gap between logs, I paused, half turned to look.

Nothing.  IlÃ2