This book I found enjoyable until the very end. The description of the cattle drive, the problems along the way, Orrin's own journey to met up with the cattle drive, all satisfied the reader in me. But the last chapter after Shorty is killed made me feel as if everyone else knew the secret except me. It left me wondering who really was Mary McCann and why had she been heading to the gold mine? What had happened between Mary McCann and Cap? Why was Shanty Gavin set on starving out his step-sister and step-father for the gold? Why was Kyle Gavin travelling west? Was it to stop Shanty or throw in his lot with him? Don't understand why the book was finished in such a hurried way.