Will DuRey Livres

A renowned hunter, tracker and guide, few white men know the land west of the Missouri like Weston Gray. The Arapaho and Lakota Sioux people with whom he's lived from time to time call him Medicine Feather and he's acted as interpreter and spokesman for them to avert trouble with the military and at treaty meetings with Washington delegates. Among the people he calls 'friend' are army officers and tribal chieftains who, in order to maintain peace, listen to his advice. But the discovery of gold in the Black Hills has changed the mood on both sides and now, in the summer of 1876, Wes no longer knows if he has any friends along the frontier. He does know that he has enemies.

"Until the night of the fire, Stanton, Montana, was a peaceful town. It boasted a church, a school and a bank, and no longer attracted those hard-riding, hard-drinking characters who brought with them the kind of lawlessness and destruction that had been rife during its earlier frontier days. Its marshal, Silas Tasker, rejoiced in the knowledge that he had rid the town of the kind of rip-roaring reputation attributed to so many other cattle-towns across the west. But in the aftermath of the blaze that destroyed the barn on the Diamond-H ranch, a man lost his sanity, others died and Silas found himself confronted with a feud capable of developing into an unstoppable range-war."--Publisher description

The flare-up between Zeb Walters of the Red Hammer ranch and Broken Arrow's top-hand, Jim Braddock, is brief and unexpected. It earns Zeb a lump on the head, a night in the cells, and a five dollar fine. The cause is a mystery to everyone, including Jim Braddock, but over the following days, the event becomes a major talking point in Big Timber, giving rise to much gossip and speculation. It is several weeks, however, before Jim and Zeb meet again, this time on the snow swept bank of a creek that forms the boundary between the two ranches. The outcome leads to death and violence, lost trust, a new ally, the threat of range war, and a noose around Jim Braddock's neck.

Ben Joyner has no argument with the people who built their homes on the grassland near Pecos, but the cattlemen have long considered the range their own domain and now trouble is brewing. Rancher Gus Remarque is Ben's boss and believes that the dollar a day he pays buys not only a man's labor but his loyalty, too. The time is fast approaching when that loyalty might involve killing or being killed, and Ben wants to wash his hands of this dispute: he did his fighting during the war. So he quits the ranch and rides east without any intention of ever returning to that part of Texas. But a strong-willed woman and two would-be horse thieves alter his plans and he's back on the streets of Pecos when bullets begin to fly.

Cassie Edmond was puzzled by the odd behavior of those around her. First it was the curious bark from their dog Butte, then the old Ute called Charlie who sometimes called to trade for coffee and flour but now sat silent on his droop-headed paint at the yard gate. Finally it was her father, lifting down his Winchester to go hunting for meat when the meal she'd been preparing was ready for the table. But when Brad Edmond returned home, carried by Charlie Ute and a stranger, his life slipping away, his back shredded by shotgun pellets, it was the start of a night of unexpected violence for Cassie, and days of trouble for the stranger Walt Ridgeway.

Law was a rare commodity on the vast cattle ranges and a man had to fight if he meant to hold on to what he owned. A rancher dispensed his owned justice when he caught those who stole his livestock, but Titus Sawyer lost more than cattle when rustlers raided his Red Diamond spread. Men were killed, too, slaughtered in a dreadful ambush, so, when he summoned his nephew Frank to track down the killers his desire to punish the culprits was deeper than justice; it was revenge.