excerpts from "The Cowboy And The Cossack" a novel by Clair Huffaker

Tonight, Fortunato presents the opening chapters of Clair Huffaker's 1973 novel "The Cowboy and The Cossack". A re imagining of the tradition cattle drive story as a group of Montana cattle drovers have been hired to drive a herd of 500 longhorns across a 1,000 miles of the Siberian wilderness. Once ashore at Vladivostok, they are startled to be met by mounted warriors who have been assigned to guide and protect them from the many Tartar bandits, and corrupt local strongmen along the route.