Judgement and Recommendation

Overall this was a good book, it kept me guessing what would happen next because there was so much action. There was a lot of fighting and shooting and this is what made it so interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading Western books or Louis Lamour's books. If you have read any of Louis Lamour's books and you liked them then you would like reading this book. All of Louis Lamour's books have an adventure and all of his stories are sure to grab you and make you keep reading until the end.

Best and Worst Parts

My favorite of the book would have been at the very end when Callaghen found the bad guys and picked them off one at a time. Other good parts would have to be every time Callaghen fought off the Indians by himself in order to save others from danger. In this book there wasn't really any worst parts, except at the end no one found the gold and I was sure Callaghen would be the one to find the gold because he had the maps but he never went back to look for it.

Conflict and Resolution

The conflict in Callaghen was Callaghen was in the army and their job was fight the Indians that tried to raid wagon trains heading West. In one of the wagons was a girl that he fell in love with when he was younger. Callaghen was sent by the army to scout around the desert and he found that the Indians were trying to attack the wagon. He got the wagon to safety and then he had to leave to help his army that was being attacked by Indians. When he got back he decided to take the wagon and try to get away from the Indians, on their way they were ambushed and the wagon was taken. Callaghen was left for dead but he was able to move on and look for the others. The resolution to the book is Callaghen found the girl and killed the bad guys and then Callaghen and the girl left together to go live in Nevada. Callaghen always seemed to have a way to defeat his enemy enough when the odds were stacked against him and weren't in his favor.

Character Development

Through out the whole book Callaghen, the main character, doesn't change much. During the whole story he is caring for others and is always risking his life in order to save others in danger. In the beginning he is very quiet and he is a follower because he is in the army he has to follow the commanders orders, but by the end he changes to become a leader. Also, Callaghen was kind to the women unlike some of the other men in the army. Overall, Callaghen didn't really change much. Another way he changed was he became a hero and also he learned a lot about living in the west in the desert. He always did what was right and experienced what it was like to try and survive in the West.

The End (pg 151-183)

So Callaghen knows that Webb Bolin has joined up with Champion and Spencer and he knows that they will come after them. So they go all the way through the hole in the mountains and come out the other side. From here they make a run for the nearest mountains because they hear the men coming behind them. During this time Major Sykes was arriving at Marl Springs where he finds that Callaghen, the women and the wagon are gone. He finds out at Marl Springs that Lieutenant Sprague gave Callaghen the command to go with the wagon to protect it. The problem is no one else at Marl Springs knew about this so they figured that Callaghen just abandoned the army to go with Malinda in the wagon. The army led by Sykes is now turned its attention toward finding Callaghen because he deserted the army. Meanwhile, Callaghen, the girls, and Beamis were surrounded by Webb Bolin, Champion, Spencer and other men. Callaghen moves their camp to the top of the hill at night so they have better firing positions. At the top they camp for the night while the bad guys camp at the bottom. In the morning, the bad guys make their move and try to sneak up the hill, while Callaghen and Beamis stay to try to hold off the bad guys the girls try to find a way to get down the other side of the mountain. At this time the army led by Sykes was only a few miles away and they find the empty wagon and the Delaware who was badly injured and he tells them the whole story of what happened. While Callaghen and Beamis were watching the bad guys at the bottom of the hill, one of them managed to slip around the hill and catch the girls. Callaghen tells Beamis to check on the girls and he finds Champion holding the girls at gun point. Beamis is shot by Champion and Callaghen hears the shot and runs to see what happened. On his way over the mountain he gets surrounded by the bad guys and they are about to shoot him when Callaghen convinces Spencer that he isn't a bad guy and Spencer takes sides with Callaghen and them shoot Bolin and his partner Barber. Callaghen runs to find the girls but finds Champion instead and they fight for a long time until the army shows up and arrests Champion. Sykes arrests Callaghen because he believes that he deserted the army but he is later let go when he gets his discharge papers that he was supposed to get three weeks earlier and Sykes was keeping them from him because he knew he needed his help. The story ends with everyone heading back to Camp Cady, and I got the idea that Callaghen and Malinda were going to go somewhere to live together. In the end, no one found the river of gold and I was thinking that Callaghen would get the maps and find the gold but that never happens. Overall this was a pretty good book and would probably give it a 6 out of 10 on my book rating scale.