Walking West

About the Book

In 1851, following the accidental shooting of a constable’s son, Christopher Portman, the 19-year-old son of a prominent Baltimore judge, sets out on a westward trek across America. He leaves behind a troubled past, the wrath of his father and the woman he loves, Rachel Cross.

Portman finds mere survival a daunting prospect. Ill-equipped for life in the wilderness, the city boy initially survives on grass, bugs and the charity of strangers. Even building a fire involves great resourcefulness, as Christopher lives in a time when safety matches had only been invented the year before and were not widely available in the United States. At a moment when he most needs help, he kills a deer and is aided by an Indian warrior called Nakamiko, himself a renegade from the Mavre tribe of southern Ohio. Nakamiko suggests they journey together so that he might learn the white language and Portman might survive in a hostile environment. Nakamiko also suggests that Christopher change his name to Buck, after the deer he felled, and his last name to Morgan to avoid those who are following him. Astonished that the native would guess he was being followed, Nakamiko explains that Buck is naive in the ways of the woods and needs a new identity to cover his escape.

Tracked by his victim’s siblings, the Cochran brothers, Buck has to do battle with the middle child and his hired henchmen, whom he befriends after he convinces them to change sides. Now Buck and Nakamiko are joined on their journey by Ned McKenzie, a stout Canadian whose family had perished in an ice storm, and two Germans, Karl, a trapper, and Gunther, his cousin, who introduces the party to the portable fire he calls “matches.”

Weeks pass as the troop meanders over the hills and valleys of Kentucky and Tennessee until they come across the notorious Cotton family, who have taken a runaway slave as their prisoner and are attempting to whip him to death. Buck boldly enters the camp and forces a showdown, after which the band of walkers are joined by young Nedra Cotton and the runaway slave they call Rupert. Rupert is from Kenya and speaks little English but had left a Georgia plantation when the slave-owner unexpectantly died and the slaves dispersed.

Meanwhile, the group is caught up in tribal rivalries, as Nakamiko’s Mavre launch an attack on the travelers, only to be repelled by a lucky shot Buck makes that kills an unseen brave. Later they are confronted by the remaining Cochran brothers, who try an unsuccessful raid on the party and are sent back, naked, to Baltimore. Nakamiko, meanwhile, distrusts the young Cotton girl and departs the group, saying he knows that he and Buck will once again get together somewhere up ahead. Together those remaining continue their journey on to Cairo, Illinois, and encounter hard lessons through the racist views of one of the town’s elders.

But in Cairo they also meet the enigmatic Duke Powers, a lanky westerner returning to the newly-created state of California, who links up with them following the incident in Cairo. They reach the sizable –and comparatively old– city of St. Louis where they have the good fortune to meet the redoubtable Mavis Heileman, she of the ancient holdings and untold wealth.

Buck and his friends have walked halfway across America yet their journey has only begun. Fording great rivers, crossing harsh terrain, the group expands and contracts as Buck and the others traverse the great and unexplored nation. Overcoming the travails of the journey, ducking multiple natural disasters, living through seering heat and bone-chilling cold, crossing the endless prairies and high mountains, Buck Morgan must confront family, friends and enemies. He slowly discovers the truth, both about himself, his heritage and the vast new country.

Buck began his trek without a dream, propelled only by his need to escape, but eventually finds the long journey rev

About the Author

James Kiehle lives in San Diego, California with his girlfriend, Sallie. He is a former magazine art director for such publications as Rolling Stone, Playboy and California magazines. Kiehle has a 14-year-old son, Nick, and feeds a stray cat named Jean Grey. He is originally from Portland, Oregon and is presently completing a detective novel and designing web sites.