Westy Martin on the Santa Fe Trail

Westy Martin on the Santa Fe Trail

Westy Martin on the Santa Fe Trail*, by Percy Keese Fitzhugh, follows Westy Martin, a celebrated Boy Scout from Bridgeboro, New Jersey, who is invited by Mr. Madison C. Wilde, a field manager for Educational Films, to join a filmmaking expedition documenting the historic Santa Fe Trail through Texas and New Mexico. Accompanying the group are Billy, the cameraman, and Rip Langley, Mr. Wilde's nephew, who is a year and a half younger than Westy and initially presents as skeptical and contrarian, though the two boys quickly form a bond. The adventure begins on the train journey west, when Westy and Rip sneak out in the middle of a stormy night after an emergency stop and discover that armed bandits are robbing the mail car. Using a gun he finds in the darkness and an authoritative bluff, Westy captures the outlaws and disarms the gang, freeing the bound mail clerks and train crew. The boys slip back to their car before anyone can identify them, determined to keep their heroism secret so that Mr. Wilde will not restrict their freedom for the rest of the trip. The film expedition proceeds along the Trail, stopping at towns and historical landmarks. Mr. Wilde uses these occasions to lecture the boys about the power of imagination in connecting the present with the past. Upon reaching the Raton Range, Westy discovers an abandoned cabin that serves as their base camp, and the group soon encounters Lola, a remarkable girl of about thirteen living alone with her grandmother, Mrs. Redmond, in a beautifully kept cottage deep in the mountains. Lola captivates the group with her history. She recounts the story of her great-grandmother, Lone Star, a Cheyenne princess rescued as an infant, who grew to influence her tribe and later helped two white gold miners escape captivity. One of the miners, John Redmond, an English gentleman of noble background, married Lone Star. His partner, Paul Mitchell, betrayed them by tricking Lone Star into stealing a document representing great wealth and then fleeing with it, leaving the Redmonds without their rightful fortune. Redmond's fear of disgracing his aristocratic family kept him from pursuing Mitchell, and subsequent generations of the Redmond family honored a promise never to seek restitution. As a result, Lola and her grandmother live in near poverty and isolation. Rip, stung by Westy's mockery of his bravado, sneaks away to swim in a nearby mountain lake that Lola has warned is both dangerous and considered haunted, connected to an ancient legend of cliff-dwelling Indians and a mass sacrifice. Westy discovers Rip trapped in the lake's powerful underwater currents, exhausted and barely clinging to a fallen tree, and dives in to save him. Westy manages to pull Rip onto the cliff base, but both boys are then trapped in the dense, cursed forest surrounding the cliff. They wander lost for three days and nights in relentless rain, suffering from hunger, thirst, snakebites, and exposure. Rip develops a dangerous fever and becomes delirious. Westy, though near collapse himself, refuses to abandon his companion. He finds sustenance through wild walnuts, guided to them by a tame bird he cannot bring himself to kill. He keeps them both alive through sheer determination until he finally spots the trail from a treetop and carries an unconscious Rip to safety. They are found by Mr. Wilde, Billy, and a frantic Lola and nursed back to health at the Redmond cottage. After recovery, a nighttime fire destroys the Redmond cottage. Before it is fully consumed, Westy rushes inside and retrieves an ebony case containing family identification papers crucial to establishing the Redmonds' legal claim against the Mitchell fortune. The expedition moves on to Santa Fe, where Westy learns that the Mitchell descendants live in great wealth, and that Paul Mitchell left a sealed envelope, purportedly holding a document connected to the Redmond claim, to be opened only upon the twenty-first birthday of his great-grandchild. Westy befriends the Mitchell boy, a fellow scout his own age, through their shared scouting identity. He then skillfully befriends the entire Mitchell family over dinner, telling them the story of Lone Star and John Redmond without initially naming names, drawing out the family's conscience before revealing the connection. The Mitchells, moved and ashamed of their ancestor's conduct, agree to open the sealed envelope and begin legal proceedings to restore what is rightfully the Redmonds'. On the eve of the resolution, the Mitchells' treacherous Mexican butler Baptiste steals the tin box containing the sealed envelope from the household safe, intending to abscond with it. Westy pursues the thieves alone on young Mitchell's motorcycle, and in a daring maneuver manages to snatch the tin box from the backseat of the fleeing car before being thrown from the motorcycle and briefly knocked unconscious. The thieves are apprehended by police, and the box is recovered intact. The novel closes with Westy and his companions boarding a train for home, watching Lola and Mrs. Redmond recede into the distance, their futures now secured. The vesper bells of the old Santa Fe cathedral ring out as the train departs, and Westy, characteristically reflective, listens to them with quiet satisfaction.

By Percy Keese Fitzhugh · First published 1911 · Genre: Adventure, Western, Young Adult Fiction · 47 chapters · 39,837 words

First lines

Westy felt that he was in hard luck! In fact, he felt that Fate had played the meanest kind of a trick on him, just when he needed all his vision to live up to the plaudits of the multitude.

The truth of the matter was, some stray particles of dust had been blowing around and at a most inopportune moment sought seclusion in his eye, much to the annoyance of our hero.

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Westy Martin on the Santa Fe Trail is listed on Textopian as a novel by Percy Keese Fitzhugh, dated 1911 CE.

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Genres

Tags

juvenile fiction · adventure · historical fiction · Western frontier · American West · coming-of-age · Boy Scouts · outdoor adventure · trail travel · friendship · courage · survival

Contents

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