The Mountain Divide

At Medicine Bend, a young night telegraph operator named Bucks tries to bring order to a crowded railroad office. His impatience catches the attention of Park Stanley, the officer directing construction of the first transcontinental railroad, and alarms Bill Dancing, a lineman who knows the town's dangers. Frank H. Spearman begins this Western novel with the practical difficulty of hearing a message over a room full of talking frontiersmen.

The story follows railway work into exposed country, where armed attacks interrupt train service and Bob Scott becomes Bucks's guard at Goose Creek. A bridge built on temporary foundations adds another source of danger, especially when engine driver Dan Baggs ignores orders to slow down. Station arguments, scouting, weather and engineering problems give the adventure its particular shape. Readers interested in frontier fiction can find suspense rooted in the people and equipment needed to keep a new railroad running.