Books by Grady Southwick

In the vast, rugged reaches of frontier America in the post-civil war era is Gabe Tanner. He is a young scout and Indian fighter. Along with his trusted companion Big Smoke, a large gray buffalo horse, he is fresh out of the army and looking for adventure. Gabe finds himself employed by a wagon train full of Mormons headed en-route from Omaha Nebraska to the Utah Territories. His job is to scout the way and blaze a safe route for the wagon company to trek. He is accompanied by a seasoned teamster and his two young adopted Choctaw Indian sons. As the trip starts the company of Mormons is stricken with the grip and impaled to the point of being shut down. While Gabe is out scouting the wagon train is attacked by marauding Indians and Haley Johnson is taken captive. When Gabe finds out about the raid, he is furious and sets out with young Davey a Choctaw Indian to try and retrieve the Mormon girl. Along the way, the pair of scouts meet up with an old Ponca Indian chief named Mahan. He is looking for his granddaughter that was taken in a raid by the same hostiles that attacked the wagon train. Forming a bond and trust among each other the three scouts set out to find and return the young girls to safety. The perils and savagery of the trail become all too apparent for the young women held captive by the Cheyenne and Sioux Indian war party. The Indians realize they are being pursued and make haste for the badlands and broken country of Eastern Wyoming. If they manage to get there ahead of their pursuers, then they will find safety in numbers. Time is of the essence for the scouting party and if Gabe Tanner is going to be successful in rescuing Haley Johnson then fate and the good graces of heaven will have to prevail over the scene. Cut in the rugged, broken hills of Eastern Wyoming we find our hero and heroine clinging by a thread to life as the winds of the prairie continue to blow ever constant.