Where the Trail Divides

Summary

A silent frontier epic that fractures the American Eden in two, Where the Trail Divides begins amid smoke-veiled massacre: a Lakota child, later christened How, is plucked from the embers by Colonel Lander, a cavalry sphinx who collects orphans like scalps. Beside him grows Bessie Rowland—pale, porcelain, parentless—her cradle a blood-stained Conestoga. Years unspool in sun-bleached classrooms where chalk squeals across slate like bone on bone; How’s braid is shorn, his tongue re-forged in Shakespeare and surveyor’s math, yet drumbeats still echo beneath every theorem. Graduation night: chandeliers tremble, quadrilles swirl, and two proposals crackle in the candle-smoke—Craig’s silver tongue against How’s stoic murmur. One refusal, one acceptance, and the trio wagon westward toward Buffalo Butte, a sky-island of grass where antelope outnumber sins. Jealousy festers like alkali in a stock tank; fists fly, the Colonel collapses mid-diatribe, his will a paper guillotine that bequeaths earth and chattel to the viperous nephew. Banished, How stakes a claim, weds Bess under a ladder of geese, then departs on freight business only to return early, finding his bride folded into Craig’s predatory embrace. Gallantry curdles: How relinquishes house, land, wife, and vanishes into ochre badlands where oil later bubbles up black as betrayal. Fortune reversed, he stalks the perfumed parlors of Manhattan, confronts Craig’s perfidy, spirits Bess back toward the horizon, and—after a final knife-edged standoff over a deed—reclaims both land and woman in a second wedding that feels more funeral than fiesta.

Synopsis

Little "How," an Indian boy, following the uprising of the Indians, is adopted by Col. Lander and taken to Col. Lander's home. Little Bessie Rowland, about the same age, is also adopted by Col. Lander, Bessie's parents having been killed in the uprising. Bessie and "How" grow up together and at the age of fifteen "How" is sent to school and makes rapid headway in the white man's mode of civilization and education. Graduation time comes and Col. Lander and Bess visit "How" and are met there by Craig, Col. Lander's nephew. Craig showers so much attention on Bess that "How" becomes jealous. At the graduation dance, Craig proposes to Bess and is refused, while "How" proposes and is accepted. They all start for Buffalo Butte Ranch at Cayote City. "How" displays his courage by cowing a bully. Later Craig, who has learned of the engagement of Bess and "How," attacks "How" but gets the worst of it. Arriving at the ranch Craig brings on a violent scene with Col. Lander with the result that the Colonel has an attack of heart failure and dies. Col. Lander wills all to Craig and Bess. Craig orders "How" from the ranch. "How" buys a cabin and land and he and Bess are married. "How" then goes on a long trip and, returning unexpectedly, discovers Bess and Craig in each other's embrace. "How" says, "I give you your freedom," and rushes out into the hills to fight it out alone. He leaves a note for Bess telling her she can have the house and acres. A year later, Craig and Bess are married. In the meantime "How" has discovered oil on the property he gave Bess and follows the Craigs to New York. Bess discovers that Craig is unfaithful and witnesses his being humiliated by "How." After many difficulties "How" convinces Bess that her property is worth a fortune and prevails upon her to return west, meantime keeping Craig a prisoner all night to give Bess a long start. A few weeks elapse and "How" receives a telegram from Bess asking him to come west immediately. He does. Craig follows them west and attacks Bess and endeavors to steal the deed to the property. "How" arrives just in the nick of time and disposes of Craig, and shortly thereafter Bess and "How" are married again.