The Trail to Santa Rosa Quotes

“no longer alive except in his memory.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“conveniently forgot their peaceful town was only peaceful because someone with a gun had tamed it, and someone with a gun kept it that way.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“His gun was still holstered, but so were theirs. He had surprise on his side, and the urgency of the riders, as he could see a second cloud of dust not far behind them. Lonesome knew these men. He might not have known them personally, but he knew the look of men who'd seen battle during the war. Many soldiers from both sides had been unable to stop killing after the war, and he judged these men to be among them. The man riding point was the one he needed to worry about. He had the look of a man who would take some killing.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“In his opinion they were hypocrites who conveniently forgot their peaceful town was only peaceful because someone with a gun had tamed it, and someone with a gun kept it that way.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“The river in his dreams was changing course once more when a sound caused him to roll to his right and come up with his Colt, ready for trouble. His movement was quick, a blur in the darkness; he had known men who died from sleeping too sound. No man who'd fought in the war ever slept a deep sleep.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“Lonesome tried to hide his surprise that Katie and Tommy lived in an old line-shack. It jutted out in the back where someone had slapped on a narrow rectangular room maybe six feet wide and eight feet long by Brooke's estimation. He hid his shock well, so that Katie would not be even more embarrassed than she was pretending not to be. There was a dignity to her that made her attractive, rising well above her circumstances. Lonesome knew what she was, but it did not matter to him. She was a good woman, fallen on hard times.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“Apache trick," nodded Fox. "Aw hell!" Jace remarked, "Accordin' to you, everything smart anybody does they learned from fightin' Apaches!" "We greatest fighters and trackers.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“The California Gold Rush, both the first and second one, had inflicted almost as much damage as the bounty. Stream channels where the Diggers fished had been disturbed or re-routed and blasting had damaged the habitat the Diggers fed on. In addition, foods the Diggers gathered from the land had been damaged or destroyed as the way was cleared for cattle, who ate one of the major source of Digger food: the acorn. Worse, as with all California tribes, contact with white men had led to new diseases for which the Indians had no immunity. The Nevada cowboy had speculated that the Sierra Diggers had once numbered perhaps ten-thousand, but that number had been whittled down to about one-thousand by the time the young man had left for Nevada.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa

“Katie Wells stood looking out her window down to the street below. She could still feel the effects of the hard-rock miner getting his money's worth in every way he could. Angry that he could not afford the younger, prettier girls of the Golden Nugget like Jolene and Candy, he had taken his frustrations out on her. The man had treated her in a way which he never would have if she hadn't been nearing forty, and slightly overweight. The moon was full tonight, and the street below was full of men looking to spend a few dollars for someone soft to hold. She stripped off what little was left of her clothes and saw herself in the mirror. Katie was still soft, perhaps almost pretty in the right light, with her blonde hair and blue eyes, but life had been unkind and it showed. She was bruised and sore, and she could feel the grime and dust from the mine all over her. The dirt would wash off, she knew. But the dirty way she felt inside would not.”
― Bobby Underwood, The Trail to Santa Rosa