Mad Bear and Bad Wolf wouldn't have fled the reservation if they hadn't been drunk, but they were after two days and nights of drinking. This was 1880, and Indians weren't allowed off the reservation without written permission. Life on the reservation was unbearable for these two, who had grown up free on the Great Plains, and they fled for Canada to join Sitting Bull. It wasn't their best plan, but it was spring, they were young, and Sitting Bull was living free, having gone to Canada aft...

In 1828, Kaimana and his father, Slim, are sailing their cargo hauler, Island Lady, from Lahaina, Maui, to Honolulu, Oahu, when they are attacked by a humpback whale that holes their small ship, causing water to pour in rapidly. Frantically, Slim and Kaimana make emergency repairs to save their vessel from sinking. With temporary repairs made, they save their ship and sail back to Lahaina for permanent repairs.While in Lahaina repairing Island Lady, Kaimana feels ...

In 1850, fifteen-year-old Jonas Abrams signed on with Captain Will Johnson to sail his fifty-seven-foot cutter, Wander, from the Chesapeake Bay to St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean Sea where Captain Will wanted to establish a boat repair business. For Jonas, this is the adventure of his dreams, but after five days at sea, they encounter a violent storm, giving Jonas his first acquaintance with rough water sailing, and creating doubts for him about adventures at sea.Upon a...

Jimmy James Lawson got off to a bad start when he began stealing to help support his family. His father had come home from the Civil War in 1865, "shell-shocked" and unable to adequately provide for his family. Falling into disfavor in his community, Libertyville, Missouri, for his thievery, Jimmy ran away, followed by his younger brother, Willis, whom he couldn't turn back.Camped out their first night on the run, the two awoke to find themselves captive to Black Eagle, a young Che...

In 1877, one year after the Sioux and Cheyenne defeated General George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Talking Elk, a prominent war chief, rides in with Crazy Horse to surrender at Fort Robinson but turns back before getting there. He can't live as the U.S. Government demands and turns, instead, to driving the gold miners out of the Black Hills who are there illegally. The Black Hills, Paha Sapa, sacred land to the Sioux, was promised to them in the Fort Laramie Treaty...

There was a time when the landed aristocracy sent their young sons out to learn of the world before returning to the governance of their wealthy estates. Richard IV was one such young man. His father's estate was vast, one that Richard would one day administer and inherit. His mother expected no less of Richard but wondered about his penchant for poetry rather than prose. It was Mary's way of saying Richard had less interest in the administration of their estate than was expected of him. A...

In his youth, Samuel Eaton idolized as heroes the outlaws, gunslingers, and lawmen written about in the dime store novels of the 1800's, highly exaggerated stories that Samuel believed to be true. Even though he is a fearful and timid man, he ventures out West to live the adventures he read about in his youth but finds he isn't meant for the hardships of the frontier. Eagerly, he retreats to his beloved Boston where he is encouraged by his lover to write about his exploits, stories he has ...

Why was he sleeping on the floor, Jack asked himself when he woke up, and why did his head hurt so bad? They were in jail again, Billy answered. We are getting out of this town, Carrot Stick added, whatever its name is, as soon as we get out of jail. That is what they did, but not before Kate caught a ride with them. She'd seen the bar fight the night before that had gotten them thrown in jail and knew they could protect her from her biker boyfriend, who was demanding she marry him so she ...

A small town on the Oregon Coast, Beach Town is the descendant of the once-thriving logging and fishing industries which have since fallen into decline, giving way to the vagaries of tourism. The mayor of Beach Town, Jasper Williams, owns the one approachable watering hole in town, The Whaler Bar and Grille. He bought it from the widow Cindy Hawkins for fifteen-thousand dollars and a month's worth of screwing. The Whaler was worth more than a month, Cindy complained after the completion of...

When Ted Keyes fled to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula, it was a quiet and remote little fishing village. The perfect place where no one knew him, and he would never be found. He bought a charter boat business from another American, and with his wife, Maria, and her six children, Captain Ted's Billfishing Company suspiciously grew to include a luxury hotel and condominium resort.Juan Benicio Cortez had demanded a cut of the profits from Captain Ted's char...

It was 1850, and fourteen-year-old Johnny James, an orphan on the streets of Boston, decided to go to the goldfields of California and leave the desperation of the slums behind. He'd heard the stories told in the saloons about the forty-niners who'd gone there and struck it rich and determined he could as well.Along the way, Johnny picked up Jasper, another orphan, to go with him. Jasper brought his best friend, Billy, whose father was a drunk and didn't want him, along with them. ...

Sonja Pretty Flower couldn't understand how her husband, Billy Bad Feather, could be so mistaken. His fights in town only led to one more night in jail. This was 1972; surely, he could see he wasn't going to be able to do what their warriors at the time, when their Lakota nation had been at its strongest, could not. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull thought together they could drive the white man from their land. With all their warriors, they fought and lost. Both were killed after surrendering...