John Brent

John Brent by Theodore Winthrop

Richard Wade, a California quartz miner ruined by the barren Don Fulano Mine, learns that his widowed sister has died and left two children in his care. He abandons the mine to return east across the plains. Before departing, he trades his worthless share in the mine to the rancher Gerrian for an untamable black stallion. By patience and kindness Wade wins the horse’s trust, names him Don Fulano, and prepares for the journey. Wade is unexpectedly joined by John Brent, his gifted but troubled college friend. Brent’s youth was blighted by his brutal stepfather, Dr. Swerger, whose religious tyranny drove Brent from home and left him struggling to find faith, purpose, and peace. The two friends set out together with their horses and pack animals, forming a close companionship during their hard travel. On the road they join Jake Shamberlain’s Salt Lake mail party. Two sinister strangers calling themselves Sam Smith and Jim Robinson attach themselves to the group. Brent immediately suspects them; their false names, gambling habits, cruelty, and furtive conduct confirm that they are dangerous criminals. At Fort Bridger the travellers encounter a great Mormon emigrant caravan led by Elder Sizzum, a domineering preacher. Among the emigrants Wade and Brent discover Hugh Clitheroe, an impoverished English gentleman, and his daughter Ellen. Clitheroe, once prosperous at Clitheroe Hall in Lancashire, lost his fortune in speculation, endured years of labor in a coal-mine, and became vulnerable to Mormon promises of authority, wealth, and spiritual certainty. Sizzum has brought him and Ellen toward Utah, holding the weak, hopeful father under religious control. Ellen, beautiful, resolute, and deeply devoted to her father, is plainly repelled by Sizzum and endangered by his attentions. Brent falls instantly and profoundly in love with Ellen. He and Wade become her and her father’s friends, but Ellen believes nothing can be done without bringing harsher punishment upon her father. Sizzum’s presence exposes the misery of their position, while the gamblers Murker and Larrap lurk about the Clitheroes’ wagon. That night Wade and Brent guard their horses after someone cuts Don Fulano’s lariat; Wade hears what may be galloping horses and a distant woman’s cry. The next morning, after Wade, Brent, and the mail party have departed, Elder Sizzum rides after them with Hugh Clitheroe. During the night Murker and Larrap entered the Clitheroes’ wagon, bound and gagged the father, and abducted Ellen. Sizzum cruelly abandons both father and daughter, revealing that he has resented Ellen’s refusal to submit to him. Brent and Wade entrust the shattered Clitheroe to Jake Shamberlain, who promises to take him safely to Fort Laramie. A wounded man named Armstrong then arrives, pursuing the same criminals. Murker and Larrap murdered his brother, robbed them of their horses and money, and left Armstrong for dead. He joins Brent and Wade: Brent and Wade ride to save Ellen, while Armstrong rides to kill the murderers. The three men race southward across the desert on Fulano, Brent’s iron-gray Pumps, and Armstrong’s gaunt white horse. Brent identifies their destination as Luggernel Alley and its springs, the only likely route through the mountains and toward escape. They find the abductors’ trail, including Ellen’s dropped riding glove, and press on through waterless country. At a pit dug by the fugitives for water, they learn that the abductors too were delayed by thirst. Refreshed but desperate, the rescuers enter the fearful gorge of Luggernel Alley, riding over slick rock, loose stone, boulders, and rifts toward the springs and the fugitives ahead.

By Theodore Winthrop · First published 1862 · Genre: Western, Adventure Fiction, Frontier Fiction · 34 chapters · 90,149 words

First lines

I write in the first person; but I shall not maunder about myself. I am in no sense the hero of this drama. Call me Chorus, if you please, -- not Chorus merely observant and impassive; rather Chorus a sympathizing monitor and helper. Perhaps I gave a certain crude momentum to the movement of the play, when finer forces were ready to flag; but others bore the keen pangs, others took the great prizes, while I stood by to lift the maimed and cheer the victor.

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California Gold Rush · mid-19th-century American West · overland journey · frontier adventure · Western novel · first-person narration · male friendship · horse taming · human-animal bond · black stallion · kindness toward animals · quartz mining

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