Vanguards of the Plains

Vanguards of the Plains

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vanguards of the Plains, by Margaret
McCarter This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Vanguards of the Plains
Author: Margaret McCarter
Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13345]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
VANGUARDS OF THE PLAINS ***

Produced by Bryan Ness and PG Distributed Proofreaders

[Transcriber's note: The spelling irregularities of the original have been
preserved in this etext.]
VANGUARDS OF THE PLAINS
[Illustration: I COULD NOT SPEAK THEN, FOR ONE SENTENCE
WAS RINGING IN MY EARS--"I WAS ALWAYS THINKING OF
YOU"]
VANGUARDS OF THE PLAINS

A ROMANCE OF THE OLD SANTA FÉ TRAIL
BY MARGARET HILL McCARTER
AUTHOR OF The Price of the Prairie HARPER & BROTHERS
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON
[Illustration]
VANGUARDS OF THE PLAINS
1917, Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATION
This story of the old Santa Fé Trail would do honor to the memory of
those stalwart men who defied the desert, who walked the prairies
boldly, and who died bravely--vanguards in the building of a firm
highway for the commerce of a westward-moving Empire.

CONTENTS
FOREWORD



PART I
CLEARING THE TRAIL
I. THE BEGINNINGS OF A PLAINSMAN II. A DAUGHTER OF
CANAAN III. THE WIDENING HORIZON IV. THE MAN IN THE
DARK V. WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST VI. SPYING OUT
THE LAND VII. "SANCTUARY" VIII. THE WILDERNESS
CROSSROADS



PART II

BUILDING THE TRAIL
IX. IN THE MOON OF THE PEACH BLOSSOM X. THE HANDS
THAT CLING XI. "OUR FRIENDS--THE ENEMY" XII. THE
BROTHERHOOD OF THE PLAINS XIII. IN THE SHELTER OF
SAN MIGUEL XIV. OPENING THE RECORD XV. THE
SANCTUARY ROCKS OF SAN CHRISTOBAL XVI. FINISHING
TOUCHES XVII. SWEET AND BITTER WATERS



PART III
DEFENDING THE TRAIL
XVIII. WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN XIX. A MAN'S


PART XX. GONE OUT
XXI. IN THE SHADOW OF THE INFINITE



PART IV
REMEMBERING THE TRAIL
XXII. THE GOLDEN WEDDING

FOREWORD
Westward, along the level prairies of a kingdom yet to be, my memory
runs, with a clear vision of the days when romance died not and strong
hearts never failed. The glamour of the plains is before my eyes; the
tingle of courage, danger-born, is in my pulse-beat; the soft hand of
love is touching my hand. I live again the drama of life wherein there
are no idle actors, no stale, unmeaning lines. And beyond the action,
this way up the years, there runs also the forward-gazing vision toward
a new Hesperides:
Through the veins Of whose vast Empire flows, in strength'ning tides,
Trade, the calm health of nations.
* * * * *
And sometimes I would doubt If statesmen, rocked and dandled into
power, Could leave such legacies to kings.

I
CLEARING THE TRAIL
VANGUARDS OF THE PLAINS
A ROMANCE OF THE SANTA FÉ TRAIL

I
THE BEGINNINGS OF A PLAINSMAN
There came a time in the law of life When over the nursing sod The
shadows broke, and the soul awoke In a strange, dim dream of God.
--LANGDON SMITH.
It might have been but yesterday that I saw it all: the glinting sunlight
on the yellow Missouri boiling endlessly along at the foot of the bluff;
the flood-washed sands across the river; the tangle of tall, coarse weeds
fringing them, edged by the scrubby underbrush. And beyond that the
big trees of the Missouri woodland, so level against the eastern horizon
that I used to wonder if I might not walk upon their solid-looking tops
if I could only reach them. I wondered, too, why the trees on our side of
the river should vary so in height when those in the eastern distance
were so evenly grown. One day I had asked Jondo the reason for this,
and had learned that it was because of the level ground on the farther

side of the valley. I began then to love the level places of the earth. I
love them still. And, always excepting that one titanic rift, where the
world stands edgewise, with the sublimity of the Almighty shimmering
through its far depths, I love them more than any other thing that nature
has yet offered to me.
But to come back to that picture of yesterday: old Fort Leavenworth on
the bluff; the little and big ravines that billow the landscape about it;
the faint lines of trails winding along the hillsides toward the southwest;
the unclouded skies so everlastingly big and