Spirit Mountain

Spirit Mountain is a collection of three short books. Conway, in “Spirit Mountain,” runs away as a child and is captured by Indians who then give him to a mountain man. In the story “Knife,” he is abducted as a child, raised by a paid keeper, sold to pirates with orders to kill; he escapes and ends up in the hands of the Comanche. Lance Roman in “The Peacemaker” goes off to fight with the British, returns to find his love is married with children, devastated he heads west to trap in order to get away. Introduction to “Spirit Mountain.” Conway is a precocious seven-year-old whose has a strong desire to be part of his father’s western quest for gold. Conway demonstrates his creative resiliency when he is captured by the Sioux and frustrates his captors into his release. The Sioux are relieved when they turn Conway over to a reclusive mountain man, who the Indians look upon as a spirit. The mountain becomes Conway’s playground as he grows up under the watchful eye of the old mountain man. For several years he attends to the old mountain man while dashing about the mountain; meanwhile tales of the mountain-boy spirit grow. Conway’s life changes when company arrives in the form of a family as they take up land at the base of the mountain. Even from hiding, Conway, now the mountain ‘spirit,’ his life changes when he feels companionship for the first time. In secret, he supports the family during their times of trial. When another family arrives, Conway discovers new feelings that must be controlled. Feelings of jealousy and anger, fighting for the first time, he wants to maim. When the mountain man, who raised Conway, dies, Conway is suddenly on his own, all these new feelings he’ll have to deal with on his own. Introduction to “Knife.” The nightmare of his abduction as a two-year-old is the only connection he had with his past. Taken as a child, he cannot even recall his given name. After ten years he is casually given to pirates as a cabin boy with strict orders to kill him. Drifting ashore in southern Texas, he is then captured by Comanche; with a pirate’s knife he gains a Comanche name. He continues to be tossed about until a Texas Ranger examines his plight. With Knife’s testimony, the pirates crew is tried, Knife earns the reward money and a possible hint as to his origin. Introduction to “The Peacemaker.” For three years Lance Roman fought with the British in India, he was kept alive by the thought of returning to the shores of the Mississippi, marrying his betrothed and settling down. Upon his return the disillusioned, decorated sharpshooter was informed that his intended was married and already had two children. Devastated, unable to drive out the pain, he decided to get away. Once an avid trapper on the shores of the Mississippi, he decided to head west to trap in the mountains, as far away from his pain as possible. Before his first day of travel is over he has a travel companion, a half Indian from the Spirit Lake band of Sioux. What follows is a run in with the sheriff of Bannack, an uprising by the Sioux and the massacre of New Ulm, Minnesota. With hatred of Indians rampant in Minnesota and a twenty-five dollar bounty on Indians, will the half Indian, once branded a peacemaker, be able to return?