THE GILDED ROOSTER

Well above average, in an adventure story of a new frontier, a remote fort near Laramie, held by a handful against the marauding Sioux, while most of the army was involved in the war between the states. There we find a Major Bonwitt, in command; a Captain Clark who was second in command; a seedy doctor, a young lieutenant, madly in love with his wisp of a wife; a small garrison of non-coms and men; and two scouts, one of them old, the other, Jed Cooper, quarrelsome, violent, feeling his strength, his individuality, resenting discipline. Into this uneasy setup comes a new officer, with none too savory a reputation, and his lovely and unhappy wife, Corinna. The Major and Jed both fall in love with her, and a strange pattern of conflict, on different emotional levels, is developed, as the problem of the Sioux comes to violent head. Well told, one feels that Roberts has cut well below the surface in a good story of a tiny segment of our frontier history.