Trouble Trail

While underneath for the third time, Hack gripped the lash of the whip in both hands and on surfacing gave it a savage jerk which shot the girl towards him. As he saw her coming, Hack's mind worked with its usual speed. Once he laid hands on her, he would half drown her, maybe give her a damned good licking to boot as an added lesson not to resist the honorable intentions of Milo Hack in future.At that point his day-dreams ended. Using a trick taught her by whip-fighting freighters, the girl permitted Hack to believe he was dragging her helplessly forward into his clutches, then when she came into range brought up a kick under his jaw to show him the error of his ways.Milo Hack reckoned to be a smart man, but he never made a worse mistake than when he tried to rough-handle Martha Jane Canary. Not that anybody in the West would know her by that name. They called her Calamity Jane. J.T. Edson brings to life the fierce and often bloody struggles of untamed West. His colorful characters are linked together by the binding power of the spirit of adventure -- and hard work -- that eventually won the West. With more than 25 million copies of his novels in print, J.T. Edson has proven to be one of the finest craftsmen of Western storytelling in our time. Calamity (Martha Jane Canary) is acknowledged by the author not to be the historical character of that name. As presented in the books, she is a young woman in her late teens or early twenties who fled a convent school to join a freight-driving crew led by Dobe Killem. Initially she made herself useful by stepping in for their drunken cook, but soon learned how to manage a team of heavy horses, fight with a whip, and shoot competently with either a .36-calibre Navy Colt or a Winchester carbine (both chosen to suit her smaller, less muscular frame). She has several adventures of her own in addition to intermittently associating with the Floating Outfit. While enjoying an on-off physical relationship with Mark Counter, it is mutually understood that they are only what a later century would call "Friends with benefits", and she enjoys other male company routinely, including on one occasion the Ysabel Kid (in White Stallion, Red Mare).