A Trip to California

About the Book

Marvin Ellis starts out for California at age nineteen. He joins a cattle drive that he caught up to. Unknown to him, the cattle were stolen. The owner and his men catch up to them and only through his ingenuity of hiding along a creek did he keep from being hung. He was now on foot but ran into a Mexican woman and her two children. They were alone as bandits had killed the husband. Marvin joins them as they need him. They are headed for Chihuahua City. Marvin couldn’t leave them by themselves, so he helps them along their way. Bandits attack them, and Marvin was able to kill most of them. Their leader happened to be a notorious bandit who had a large bounty on his head. Marvin had his horse and belt buckle. Everyone then knew it was the bandits, so Marvin was paid the reward. He became friends with a gunsmith in Chihuahua and told him about driving the cattle in Texas. The owner of the large number of cattle was looking for a foreman to drive his cattle to Santa Fe. The gunsmith recommended Marvin as he remembered Marvin telling him about driving cattle in Texas. Thus, the owner hires Marvin, and they become lifelong friends. The story has love stories mingled with the many adventures. After Marvin makes his fortune, he finally gets to California.

About the Author

William Post was reared in West Texas. He was educated at Teas A & M, then served in the U. S. Navy. After his service, he became a surveyor for the Southern Pacific Railroad. This took him to the wilds of Texas New Mexico, Arizona and California where he familiarized himself with the lore of those areas. This becomes apparent throughout the stories in these settings. William has a wanderlust. At age fifteen, he traveled by himself to New York City where he caught an oil tanker to the Island of Aruba, where his uncle and his family lived. He has traveled nearly every interstate in America, visiting most of the national parks and cemeteries. William is a civil engineer and retired as the chief engineer of the Long Beach Water Department. He is an evangelic Christian and the thread of his faith can be seen throughout the fabric of his stories. He now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife and his extended family.