The Road to Reckoning

The Road to Reckoning
Robert Lautner

A novel that hits right to the heart of fans of Cold Mountain and True Grit. Set in 1837, this is the completely compelling story of 12-year-old orphan Thomas Walker and his treacherous journey home through the wide open lands of America.‘I, to this day, hold to only one truth: if a man chooses to carry a gun he will get shot.My father agreed to carry twelve.’Young Tom Walker cannot believe his luck when his father allows him to accompany him on the road, selling Samuel Colt’s newly-invented revolver. They will leave behind the depression and disease that is gripping 1830’s New York to travel the country together.Still only twelve years old, Tom is convinced that he is now a man. Fate, it seems, thinks so too …On the road west the towns get smaller, the forests wilder, and the path more unforgiving. A devastating encounter cuts their journey tragically short, and leaves Tom all alone in the wilderness.Struggling to see a way home, he finds his only hope: ageing ranger Henry Stands, who is heading back east. Tom’s resolve to survive initiates an unlikely partnership that will be tested by the dangers of the road ahead, where outlaws prowl.

COPYRIGHT (#u8b6e7b18-359b-5687-a7fa-396ab549d52e)

The Borough Press

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Copyright © Robert Lautner 2014

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Cover images © Ilona Wellmann / Arcangel Images (boy); Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com) (bird, paper texture)

Map © David Rumsey Collection

www.davidrumsey.co.uk (http://www.davidrumsey.co.uk)

Robert Lautner asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007511310

Ebook Edition © January 2014 ISBN: 9780007511334

Version: 2015-01-27

For my brother

The Lord made men.

But Sam Colt made them equal.

—Anon.

Table of Contents

Cover (#u4229fa90-f015-5f59-8e56-e07cbac2b4b9)

Title Page (#u44ab95fb-d32a-5154-acec-067aa9c0b4d0)

Copyright

Dedication (#uf6be6aa1-5764-513a-b22d-0c2e81037fad)

Map (#ue0b02fb3-6f57-57d3-a05f-569d9dab29c6)

Epigraph (#u5f6575a1-dff8-51fa-8558-e740fae10170)

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen