Callaghen (pg.1-50)

The book begins when Callaghen is part of an U.S army patrol and their job is to protect settlers coming West from the Mohaves. The Mohaves are Indians that live a certain region in the desert. The patrol is led by Lieutenant Allison and they are lost in the desert and they are being tracked by a group of Mohaves trying to kill them. Callaghen thinks he knows where they are at and so he starts leading them to Eagle Mountain, where he thinks they can find water. After a few days they are low on water, low on ammo, and very tired. Lieutenant Allison is shot and killed and so Callaghen takes over and leads his men to Eagle Mountain. There they find water and after Callaghen saves them by shooting the Indians, they start to respect him. He eventually leads them back to their camp, where other men are waiting for them. Here the story becomes boring because Callaghen talks about his past, and nothing exciting really happens. When Callaghen tells the captain at the camp what happened, nobody knows why Allison led them to the desert where they weren't supposed to be. There is a legend that there is a gold river underneath the desert. Callaghen and the captain think this is why Allison led the army patrol to the desert, to look for the gold river. The captain looked back in his papers and found that no one enough knew where Allison came from or who he was. Near the end this man shows up that Callaghen used to know by the name of Major Sykes. Major Sykes is bringing his army west to stop Indian raids on wagon trains. Then this lady shows up that both men used to know by the name of Malinda Colton. This sets up a conflict between the two men over the lady.