Bannack — Richard S. Wheeler

If Mister Skye had not wanted the new Henry repeating rifle so badly, he would have thought more than twice about leading this particular group of pilgrims from Ft. Laramie into the Idaho territory.

There was Alvah Riddle, marriage broker, leading three mail order brides to the miners; Alvah Riddle, a man so crooked he spent all his time looking for the angle. Even if Skye was simply trying to protect him, Alvah had to find the motive....

And there was Goldtooth Joyce and her entourage: sporting women from a house in Memphis, looking to get rich quick; Seven-Storey Chang, a Mandarin Chinese; Blueberry Hill, runaway slave and piano player; and the man calling himself Cornelius Vanderbilt -- a gambling man with a fixed deck, hidden guns, and a piece of body armor...just in case.

Even before they began, Mister Skye and his wives Mary and Victoria knew this group would be trouble. Then came the deserters, the flash flood, and the village of Old Bull.

After that, things got bad