Buffalo Palace

This is the second of a 3-book series. Titus Bass, having departed St. Louis, is making his way west, and he first encounters a widow whom he befriends at a store along his way. Although his love for women is well-known from the first book, it is surprising that he is now in a position to help the widow in her grieving by making love to her, which she almost forces on him, but he tenderly helps her to understand she is still a desirable female who surely will find a good man to love her and help raise her children. Titus eventually sees his buffalo and reaches the mountains. A side note - in the first book, his older mountain man friend tells Titus about Hugh Glass, and the reader is encouraged to delay picking up this second volume until having read "Lord Grizzly", by Frederick Manfred. The story of Hugh Glass is a great supplement to this 3-part tale by Johnston. In the mountains, Titus meets a trio who take him under their collective wings to teach him about the trapping of beaver. Along the way, he becomes a first-rate trapper, eventually giving the most-skilled of the three a close race to see who can trap the most animals. Toward the end of the book, the three head downstream on two rafts with all the skins to sell or trade for necessary supplies and equipment at a trading post fort. Titus is left with all the animals and the quartet's supplies and equipment with a plan to meet them at a prearranged location upon their anticipated return. They do not return, and he is eventually attacked by Indians while enroute to rendezvous, the annual trappers' gathering. He is scalped and left for dead, but he survives with the aid of his faithful mule, Hannah. They make their way toward the gathering place, and he encounters a group of trappers who help him to regain his strength and health. The last book is Carry the Wind, and it is a must-read!

I enjoy reading Terry C. Johnston frontiersmen saga, actually I am devouring book after book he has written. Reading makes me partecipate in those heroic actions carried out by brave and simple men, living a unique era in a wild and harsh environment that disappeared forever, after some decades, due to the expansion of the so said "civilization" broght West by the white settlers.

Wagh, this Child first met up with Ol' Scratch some ten year back when, "Carry the Wind", was published. Each subsequent chapter from, "Borderlords", to "One Eyed Dream", have been read and re-read. After a long wait, Titus Bass joined us once again in, "Dance on the Wind", a wonderful adventure where we see Titus during his youth. In "Buffalo Palace", Terry C. Johnston shares the life of Scratch with his fans once more. This go around takes us through Titus's education from being a tin-horn who wouldn't know slow bull, from fat cow, into a grizzled trapper, minus a little hair. Along the way, Scratch earns his stripes after hardships and a will that won't quit. The adventures that we get to experience through Titus's eyes makes it difficult to wait for the third book in this trilogy. Terry, please hurry!