"SOONER OR LATER I'LL HAVE TO SMASH YOU!"

That was Rawe North's thanks to Tripp Devero, who'd saved him from a knife in the back. Being ranchers, they sided each other against the riffraff of the city. Yet back on the range it was a fight to the death. The country was big, but not big enough for both of them.

So when Rawe returned to find his cattle rustled, his men dead or deserted, his range burned, he vowed to settle accounts with Tripp Devero in gunfire. But first he had an empire to win back. There was one way for Rawe to get cattle fast — to steal them; one way for him to keep them — to murder for them. But he saved one bullet for Tripp Devero, staking everything on his gun to make the final payment in revenge.