Of Thad Oglevie, a Texas trail driver, who is shot up in a saloon fight on a stop off at Red Bone, and stays on as Deputy Marshall under Cass Silver, whose cold pride and solitary incorruptibility excites his young admiration. And in their efforts to clean up the town and defend the innocent, Thad learns the loneliness of the life he has chosen, and when Cass is killed- finds that courage too has a hollow ring... A variant, in this field, and there's a grim set to the jaw.