After his mother's funeral leaves him alone, penniless, and cut off from any clear family past, Rex Morgan discovers that book learning has not prepared him for survival. Thrust into the real world with no money, no trade, and only a small check that barely covers his mother's debts, he is pushed from grief into hardship, and then out onto the road toward Arizona. His first job driving a grocery wagon becomes a humiliating crash course in danger, ending in wrecked deliveries, a lost job, and a bruised awakening to adult life. That uneasy coming-of-age collides with a hard-edged frontier feud on the Black Horse range, where the powerful Morgan outfit battles stubborn homesteaders like Paul Lane over land, law, and unbranded calves. Humor, suspicion, and violence mingle as Sheriff Lem Sheeley, Deputy Noah Evans, Hashknife Hartley, and Sleepy Stevens try to make sense of a double death, while Nan Lane's sharp wit and Walter "Long" Lane's battered return raise the stakes. As accusations mount against the Lanes, Hashknife senses that Rex knows more than he admits, and the mystery surrounding Peter Morgan's death deepens into a tense Western drama of loyalty, justice, and hidden truth. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
