The Desert Trail: Western Novel

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The winter sun rose coldly over Gadsden, a bustling border city in the West, surrounded by a vast desert. The city, vibrant with traffic and men, featured a main street lined with brick buildings, abruptly ending at the U.S.-Mexico border. The contrast between the two sides was stark, not in the land but in governance. As the sun warmed the morning air, townsfolk emerged from their chilly lodgings. Groups of Mexicans huddled in blankets, while cowboys stood apart, scanning the crowd. The streets teemed with diverse characters: mining men, graybeards sharing gossip, and hoboes seeking a meal, all idlers searching for their kind. Women moved quickly, avoiding eye contact, as they were few in this male-dominated city of adventurers. Driven by a common calamity, men from various backgrounds flocked to Gadsden, escaping the chaos of the Mexican war. As the day progressed, the crowd at the bank corner grew, filled with cattlemen, miners, and tradesmen, all waiting for the conflict to resolve. Among them arrived two newcomers, their faces still red from the cold ride. They stepped from a hotel, hoping to find familiar faces in the sea of strangers. The cowboys eyed them with disdain, particularly noting the smaller man’s puttees and the larger man's prospector shoes, intrigued by his tall stature and wind-burned features.