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Book Details

The Daybreakers

71.4% complete
1960
2024
1 time
20 chapters
Book Cover
Has a genre Has an extract Has a year read Has a rating In my library In a series 
3163
Copyright © 1960 by Bantam Books, Inc.
No dedication.
My brother, Orrin Sackett, was big enough to fight bears with a switch.
May contain spoilers
Nor will I....
No comments on file
Extract (may contain spoilers)
We had our troubles.  When that bunch began to realize what was happening they didn't like it.  We wore our horses to a frazzle but we kept that herd on the trail right up to dusk to tire them out as much as to get distance behind us.  We kept a sharp lookout, but we saw no Indians.

Santa Fe was a smaller town than we expected, and it sure didn't shape up to more than a huddle of adobe houses built around a sunbaked plaza, but it was the most town I'd ever seen, or Orrin.

Folks stood in the doorways and shaded their eyes at us as we bunched our cows, and then three riders, Spanish men, started up the trail toward us.  They were cantering their horses and staring at us, then they broke into a gallop and came charging up with shrill yells that almost started our herd again.  It was Miguel, Pete Romero, and a rider named Abreu.

"Ho!"  Miguel was smiling.  "It is good to see you, amigo.  We have been watching for you.  Don Luis has asked that you be his guests for dinner."

"Does he know we're here?" Orrin was surprised.

Miguel glanced at him.  "Don Luis knows most things, senor.  A rider brought news from the Vegas."

They remained with the herd while we rode into town.

We walked over to the La Fonda and left our horses in the shade.  It was cool inside, and quiet.  It was shadowed there like a cathedral, only thisa here was no catherdral.  It was a drinking place, and a hotel, too, I guess.

Mostly they were Spanish men sitting around, talking it soft in that soft-sounding tongue of theirs, and it gave me a wonderful feeling of being a travelled man, of being in foreign parts.  A couple of them spoke to us, most polite.

We sat down and dug deep for the little we had.  Wasn't much but enough for a few glasses of wine and mayhap something to eat.  I liked hearing the soft murmur of voices, the click of glasses, and the click of heels on the floor.  Somewhere out back a woman laughed, and it was a mighty fine sound.

While we sat there an Army officer came in.  Tall man, thirtyish with a clean uniform and a stiff way of walking like those Army men have.  He had mighty fancy mustaches.

"Are you the men who own those cattle on th edge of town?"

"Are you in the market?" Orrin said.

"That depends on the price."

He sat down with us and ordered aglass of wine.

"I will be frank, gentlemen there has been a drought here and a lot of cattle have been lost.  Most of the stock is very thin.  Yours is the first fat beef we've seen."

Tom Sunday glanced up and smiled.  "We will want twenty-five dollars per head."

The captain merely glanced at him.  "Of course not," he said, then he smiled at us and lifted his glass.  "Your health -"

"What about Don Luis Alvarado?" Orrin asked suddenly.

The captain's expression stiffened a little and he asked,  "Are you one of the Pritts crowd?"

"No," Tom Sunday said, "we met the don out on the Plains.  Came west from Abilene with him, as a matter of fact."

"He's one of those who welcomed us in New Mexico.  Before we took over the Territory the MexIcan government was in no position to send troops to protect these colonies from the Indians.  And most of the trade was between Santa Fe and the States, rather than between Santa Fe and Mexico.  The don appreciated this, and most of the people here welcomed us."

Characters
Cap Rountree
Don Luis Alvarado
Drusilla Alvarado
Jonathan Pritts
Laura Pritts
Tom Sunday
Mary Ann Sackett - (Sackett Family)
Orrin Sackett - (Sackett Family)
Tyrel Sackett - (Sackett Family)

 

Added: 19-Jun-2022
Last Updated: 04-Nov-2024

Quotes

In the hills we like our coffee strong but this here would make bobwire grow ona man's chest in the place of hair.
There would be trouble enough, but a man is born to trouble, and it is best to meet it when it comes and not lose sleep until it does.
He fancied himself as a tough man and a gunfighter, but he didn't really want anybody shooting at him.  The trouble with having a reputation as a tough man is that the time always comes when you have to be a tough man.
Suddenly something had happened to me, and it happened to Orrin too.  The world had burst wide open, and where our narrow valleys had been, our hog-backed ridges, our huddled towns and villages, there was now a world without end or limit.  Where our world had been one of a few mountain valleys, it was now as wide as the earth itself, and wider, for where the land ended there was sky, and no end at all to that.
...this is a big country out here and it takes big men to live in it, but it gives every man an equal opportunity.  You're just as big or small as your vision is, and if you've a mind to work and make something of yourself, you can do it.
Sometimes I wonder if anything is ever ended.  The words a man speaks today live on in his thoughts or the memories of others, and the shot fired, the blow struck, the thing done today is like a stone tossed into a pool and the ripples keep widening out until they touch lives far from ours.
Politics ain't much different, Tyrel, than one of these iceburgs you hear tell of.  Most of what goes on is beneath the surface.  It doesn't make any difference how good a man is, or how good his ideas are, or even how honest he is unless he can put across a program, and that's politics.
Violence is an evil thing, but when the guns are all in the hands of the men without respect for human rights, then men are really in trouble.
If crooked gambling, thieving, and robbing are covered over, folks will tolerate it longer than outright violence, even when the violence may be cleansing.

Publications

 01-Dec-1980
Bantam Books
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Dec-1980
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$2.50
Pages*:
204
Read:
Once
Reading(s):
1)   5 Oct 2024 - 6 Oct 2024
Cover Link(s):
Internal ID:
2654
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-553-22815-3
ISBN-13:
978-0-553-22815-1
Printing:
21
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
John Hamilton - Photographer
I'M TYREL SACKETT AND
I WAS BORN TO TROUBLE...


I killed a man in Tennessee, fair and square, but me and my brother Orrin hit the trail west.  Those were the years when decent men and women went in fear of Indians, rustlers and killers, but we made the West a land where folks could raise their young 'uns.  Orrin brought law and order from Santa Fe to Montana, and I backed him all the way.  Because, till the day I hung it up, I was the fastest gun alive!

THE DAYBREAKERS

LOUIS L'AMOUR
Our foremost storyteller of the authentic West, L'Amour has thrilled a nation by bringing to vivid life the brave men and women who settled the American frontier.  There are now more than 120 million of his books in print around the world.
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back CoverBook Spine
Notes and Comments:
A Bantam Book / February 1960
2nd printing ... December 1971
3rd printing ... April 1972
4th printing ... September 1972
5th printing ... August 1973
6th printing ... September 1974
7th printing ... September 1975
8th printing ... December 1975
9th printing ... January 1977
10th printing ... July 1977
11th printing ... November 1977
12th printing ... November 1978
13th printing ... January 1979
14th printing ... January 1979
15th printing ... July 1979
16th printing ... December 1979
17th printing ... May 1980
18th printing ... December 1980

Twenty-first printing based on the number line.
Image File
01-Dec-1980
Bantam Books
Mass Market Paperback

Related

Author(s)

 Louis L'Amour
Birth: 22 Mar 1908 Jamestown, North Dakota, USA
Death: 10 Jun 1988 Los Angeles, California, USA

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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Presented: 02-Dec-2024 11:49:11

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