The Western Trail

A stubborn band of hard-driving Texans lock horns with a ruthless railroad barron in a bloody battle for an untamed land.

An extraordinary saga of the trail-blazing cowboys who made their fortune driving cattle from Texas to the Great Frontier.

The Western Trail marks the second book in a three-part series based on history-blazing trail drives in the old West.

Author Ralph Compton keeps his first-book characters together in this novel that pinpoints the Western trail that started in San Antonio, Texas.

It skirted the border of Indian Territory and ran a bit west of Fort Dodge before heading to Ogallala, Neb. The northern leg continued across Dakota Territory to Fort Buford, located on the south bank of the Missouri at the extreme western border of what would become North Dakota.

The western leg of the trail Veered from Ogallala to Cheyenne and then swung north to Fort Laramie and on to Miles City in Montana territory.

Benton McCaleb, who was the main character in Compton's The Goodnight Trail, returns along with sidekicks Brazos Gifford and Will Elliott to move cattle up the trail to their ranch in Wyoming and then on to Fort Buford and Miles City.

McCaleb has to battle Indians, outlaws and other problems as he drives Texas long-horns to markets on the trail.

The third book in the series, The Chisholm Trail, is due out in April.