The Wild Huntress, by Captain Mayne Reid.
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This book is divided up into 105 chapters of roughly the same length and
each moving forward the events with some significant incident. It must
be remembered that the author was one of the very first writers to
describe the Wild West, and this book, first published in 1855, his
ninth book to appear in this genre, is very masterly.
After a little scene-setting the story opens with Frank Wingrove, who
had bought an area of land in Tennessee that was already in the hands of
a squatter, Hickman Holt, coming to explain the situation to the
squatter who, not unnaturally is rather annoyed. They are just about to
have a duel to the death when a third party arrives on the scene. This
is the start of the main events of the book, for Frank has fallen in
reciprocated love with one of the two beautiful daughters of the
squatter. I will not spoil the story for you, but it takes you in the
direction of California, and into the hands of the Indians. It also
takes you into the encampment of a Mormon train, that is making its way
towards Salt Lake City. It is rather an exciting, and indeed
interesting tale, well worth reading. Listening to it may be harder to
accomplish, because so many of the people in the story talk in
various forms of uneducated English, but it's worth a try.
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THE WILD HUNTRESS, BY CAPTAIN MAYNE REID.