Coltrane's Journey — Danny C. Thornsberry

A seventeen-year-old mountain boy from the hills of eastern Kentucky dreams of becoming a thirty-a-month cowhand in the Lone Star State. To that end, he heads for Texas via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, working for a riverman who is transporting a cargo on his flatboats more dangerous than firecrackers.

Along the way, he becomes romantically involved with a mysterious and beautiful seventeen-year-old girl, who is fighting desperately to evade her murderous, inheritance-hungry relatives.

To all of this is added the stress of Coltrane's efforts to parlay the seventy-five dollars he left the Bluegrass State with into a small fortune, when he is given the opportunity to invest in a herd of Texas longhorns being driven to Kansas. The adventures he experiences along the way are those he will not soon forget.