Gold!

by Anthony Aidan

Gold! is the tale of two runaways caught up in the gold rush in California in 1849. Sam and Cecilia come from privileged backgrounds, their fathers owners of profitable banks back in the civilised quarters of New York City. What starts as a naive rebellion against the roles cast for them by their families, quickly turns into a fight for their very survival. Cecilia takes the Argonauts trail to San Francisco, taking a wagon train over inhospitable and lawless lands. She survives a merciless attack by a Comanche war party to be taken prisoner along with the women and children. She is forced to act as a slave to Mountain Lion, the heir apparent for the Comanche tribe. Against all the odds, a love blossoms between the two, before they are parted by a massacre of the Comanche people by troopers from Fort Bridger.Sam takes the long sea voyage around Cape Horn and up to San Francisco, stopping at every port along the way. Sam's initiation into the world of hardship is brutal, forcing him to leave behind his childish and romantic notions of an adventure in the wild west. It is not long before they are each embroiled in the long grasp of Samuel Johannsen. Cecilia is found wandering alone in the hills, starving and dying of thirst by a wagon train bringing fallen women to work the whore house owned by Johannsen. The Reverend Samuel Johannsen is the first man to see the potential of the find by James Marshall at Cullumah, buying up hardware stores, a newspaper and the largest pleasure house using the funds of his congregation. As time passes, Sam and Cecilia are thrown together in a desperate struggle for survival against the brutal exploitation of a once honourable man who has become all powerful. In San Francisco, Johannsen's law is the law.The novel takes the reader into the gold fields of Sierra Nevada, embracing the stoical determination to strike it rich by men who have travelled from all parts of the globe, drawn by the siren call of easy riches.The novel follows the efforts of White Horse to save his tribe from the murderous dictates of the palefaces. Following the acquisition of California from the Mexicans in 1848, there has been a decree passed allowing the collection of Indian heads for payment by the authorities through mass murder. Gunslingers undertake brutal attacks, their crimes declared lawful, their pockets filled with Government Dollars. Slowly White Horse begins to fight back. The California gold rush has no heroes. It has the exploited and the exploiters. It has the murderous and their victims. It has the fortunate and the cursed. Greed percolates through every part of this primitive society as the village of San Francisco morphs into a hub of activity and commerce. Here there is no law. Here there is only the instinct for survival. Can Sam and Cecilia live to tell the tale?

Unknown Binding

About the author

Worked in finance for twenty five years before deciding to write. I have travelled extensively and enjoy outside pursuits. I am married with three adult children and live in West Sussex.