Lure of the River

By Zane Grey

Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 - October 23, 1939) was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the American frontier, including the novel Riders of the Purple Sage, his bes selling book. This is one of his stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Release date: Mar 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781609775773

Zane Grey

The father of the western novel, Zane Grey (1872 - 1939) was born in Zanesville, Ohio. He wrote 58 westerns, including Spirit of the Border, Wildfire, and Riders of the Purple Sage, as well as almost 30 other books. Over 130 films have been based on his work.

Book preview

Lure of the River

BY ZANE GREY

Start Publishing LLC

Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

First Start Publishing eBook edition January 2014

Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC

Manufactured in the United States of America

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

ISBN 978-1-60977-577-3

Iquitos was a magnet for wanderers and a safe hiding place for men who must turn their faces from civilization. Rubber drew adventurers and criminals to this Peruvian frontier town as gold lured them to the Klondike.

Among the motley crowd of rubber hunters boarding the Amazonas for the up-river trip was a Spaniard, upon whom all eyes were trained. At the end of the gangplank, Captain Valdez stopped him and tried to send him back. The rubber hunter, however, appeared to be a man whom it would be impossible to turn aside.

There’s my passage, he shouted. I’m going aboard.

No one in Iquitos knew him by any other name than Manuel. He headed the list of outlaw rubber hunters, and was suspected of being a slave hunter as well. Beyond the Andes was a government which, if it knew aught of the slave traffic, had no power on that remote frontier. Valdez and the other boat owners, however, had leagued themselves together and taken the law into their own hands, for the outlaws destroyed the rubber trees instead of tapping them, which was the legitimate work, and thus threatened to ruin the rubber industry. Moreover, the slave dealers alienated the Indians, and so made them hostile.

Captain Valdez how looked doubtfully at Manuel. The Spaniard was of unusual stature; his cavernous eyes glowed from under shaggy brows; his thin beard, never shaven, showed the hard lines of his set jaw. In that crowd of desperate men he stood out conspicuously. He had made and squandered more money than any six rubber hunters on the river; he drank chicha and had a passion for games of chance; he had fought and killed his men.

I’m going aboard, he repeated, pushing past Valdez.

One more trip, then, Manuel, said the captain slowly. We’re going to shut down on you outlaws.

They’re all outlaws. Every man who has nerve enough to go as far as the Pachitier is an outlaw. Valdez, do you think I’m a slaver?

You’re suspected--among others, replied the captain warily.

I never hunted slaves, bellowed Manuel, waving his brawny arms. I never needed to sell slaves. I always found cowcha more than any man on the river.

Manuel, I’ll take you on your word. But listen--if you are ever caught with Indians, you’ll get the chain gang or be sent adrift down the Amazon.

Valdez, I’ll take my last trip on those terms, returned Manuel. I’m going far--I’ll come in rich.

Soon after that the Amazonas cast off. She was a stern-wheeler with two decks--an old craft as rough-looking as her cargo of human freight. On the upper deck were the pilot house, the captain’s quarters, and a small, first-class cabin, which was unoccupied. The twenty-four passengers on board traveled second-class, down on the lower deck. Forward it was open, and here the