Resumen
Resumen de Un nombre herido
Para quién es
Readers who like frontier forts, desert chases, courtroom suspense and a quiet hero who answers slander with silence. It suits anyone who enjoys army life after the Civil War, steamship voyages and a gently growing love story.
De qué trata este libro
A Wounded Name is a military adventure by Charles King, a soldier turned writer who died in 1933. It is set in the years just after the American Civil War, when the army was stretched thin across the Arizona desert and the northern plains. King knew army life from the inside, and it shows in the details of arrests, escorts, courts, stage stops and supply trains.
The story follows Walter Loring, a young engineer fresh from West Point. He is sent to map Arizona and soon finds himself judge advocate at the court-martial of Captain Nevins, a card sharp who has looted the government. Then a pair of diamonds, a girl with a guitar, a sinking steamer and a scandal in San Francisco carry Loring from one test of his honor to the next. You get dusty ranches, bandit country, a gale at sea and a new fort on Sioux land.
This summary walks you through nine key points, from the first chase in the desert to the shadow that follows Loring to the Platte. It stops before the ending, so the last pages stay yours. First, the runaway captain.
En este resumen
- 1A Runaway Captain at Sancho's RanchFree
- 2Nevins Rose by Favor and Cards
- 3A Plea in Court Changes Everything
- 4The Escort, the Guitar, and the Ambush
- 5A Sea Voyage and a Sinister Packet
- 6A Dolphin, a Fog, and a Lifeboat
- 7A Hero Is Treated as a Suspect
- 8A Letter, a Panic, and a Familiar Face
- 9Honor, Silence, and How the Tale Is Told
Idea clave 1 de 9
A Runaway Captain at Sancho's Ranch
The story opens at Sancho's dinner ranch on the Gila River, a dusty stage stop in Arizona Territory just after the Civil War. Sancho is a smooth, bowing keeper who sells poor whiskey with perfect manners. His helper Pedro watches the road and shrills a warning when a dust cloud rolls up the valley. Lieutenant Blake, a long-legged infantry officer who has talked his way into cavalry duty, despises the place. He is sure Sancho hides a government signal glass that a deserter traded for liquor.
When Blake demands it, Sancho hands him a worthless old lorgnette instead. Blake strides toward a bedroom to search and stops at the door. Inside he finds a stout woman and a slender, dark-eyed girl. Sancho calls them his brother's wife and his brother's daughter. Blake backs away in confusion, rides off, and cannot stop thinking of the face at the window.
We also learn why he is in this desert. Madeleine Torrance, a navy captain's daughter, has jilted him, and he asked for the hardest duty the army could give. At Gila Bend he meets an old classmate, Loring, a quiet engineer sent to draw a proper map of Arizona. Loring says almost nothing about himself, but the narrator hints that he too carries a sore heart, and that both men's old loves will return.
Two weeks later the stage brings two officers to Sancho's door. The older is Colonel Turnbull, the department's inspector general, and the younger is Loring. A packet of orders waits for them. Captain Nevins, whose court-martial is about to open at Camp Cooke, has vanished in the night on the best horse in the post.
The colonel wants Blake's cavalry and Loring's cool head to bring him back. Sancho, who cannot read, listens closely and does not like what he hears about a man he knows well. Loring changes into riding clothes, pays a gold coin for a fast roan horse, and rides east after a hurried dinner. Two rough loungers whip their mounts after him, and the reader begins to wonder just how much Sancho's house knows.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Un nombre herido
What is A Wounded Name about?
It follows a young army engineer, Walter Loring, who is judge advocate at the court-martial of a gambling captain in Arizona. When the captain's diamonds are stolen from Loring, the loss becomes a scandal that follows him across the Pacific and the plains.
Who is Pancha in A Wounded Name?
Pancha is a sixteen-year-old girl at Sancho's ranch on the Gila. She is caught between her family's crimes and her wish to warn the officers, and she becomes a key figure in Loring's story.
What does the title A Wounded Name mean?
The title comes from a line of Shakespeare quoted on the first page. It refers to a good name hurt by slander, and the book asks how honor can be defended when rumor spreads faster than proof.
Is A Wounded Name based on a true story?
It is a work of fiction by Charles King, who served in the army himself. The settings, the ranks, the stage routes and the frontier forts reflect real army life in the years after the Civil War.
Is A Wounded Name easy to read?
Yes, the story moves through short chapters with strong scenes, clear characters and lots of action. Chases, a shipwreck and courtroom drama keep the pace brisk, and the narrator explains army customs as he goes.