Powder

Across the Montana frontier, Jerk Line Smith hauls provisions, dynamite, and whiskey toward the rough mining camps of the Little Rockies. With eighteen horses, heavily loaded wagons, and a reputation for profanity matched only by his skill, he can guide a freight outfit through gumbo mud, steep grades, blizzards, and almost any other hardship the open country provides.

At his side is Two Dog Moore, a diminutive former sheepherder whose duties include everything from cooking and repairing harness to setting brakes and nursing Jerk Line through bouts of delirium tremens. Together, they represent a vanishing breed of frontier workers whose labor helped build the West, even as modern roads and motor trucks begin to replace them. Rich in dialect, tall tales, horse sense, and the rough camaraderie of the trail, this story opens with a vividly comic portrait of two hard-bitten men and the remarkable team that carries them onward.