Trouble at Sagrado Ranch

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
Taxes drove me
To my Doom.

"Trouble at the Sagrado Ranch," is a novel I've written about the Hawkins family of Texas, formerly of Virginia. It is a tale of Pete Hawkins, the oldest off-spring, and Thaddeus Hawkins, third in line, who have arrived back in Texas on the very day the Civil War ended, having been fighting for the Confederacy. Reaching the old homestead in a state of excitement, they find it empty, no cattle anywhere, vacant. They visit a neighbor, Mr. Blain, to find out where everybody is, and Lila Hawkins, a younger sister runs to greet them and tells them the family has moved to Sagrado, New Mexico, to run a ranch for an eastern owner. Their brother, Adam, has run off to San Antonio, because he doesn't like the cattleman's life.

Pete and Thad decide to head to Sagrado, paying a visit to Adam in San Antone, find out he's managing a hotel, is married to Sylvia Guntersbach, a young friend, and has a baby. Pete and Thad continue to Sagrado, signing on with a wagon train as scouts and cattle trailers. After some trouble on the trail, they reach El Paso, leave the train, and continue on to Sagrado, visiting Mesilla, Las Cruces, Fort Selden, and Leasburg, where they nurse their bruises after a terrific fight in the Flat Rock Saloon. They pass over the dry, dangerous Jornada del Muerte and reach Socorro. While freshening up and resting for the next leg to Sagrado, a wagon rolls into the town with their younger brother, Willie, coming for supplies, escorted by a wary Shorty Jones and two others.

Well, I think that's enough of an introduction to see what it's about and where it's going, but I haven't mentioned the Apache troubles and the stealing of cattle by Shorty. Oh, well, I think you get the idea. The manuscript is complete, and I will now start the revising, editing, adding, deleting portion of producing a publishable story, at least to my satisfaction, anyway.