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.