When Tom returns to his old home in the mountains he is a man, a veteran of the gold fields of the West. He senses the strange uneasy atmosphere of his native backwoods. He acquires a hard riding horse and a fine dog, half bloodhound; he sees his old friends; he reaches his wilderness cabin to find it occupied by the new game warden. The warden wins Tom over to the new state conservation laws, and then Tom finds what is the trouble. A vicious gang is cleaning out the wild life of the region. Tom is made assistant warden, and with his dog, starts out on a man-hunt that provides tense moments on long wilderness trails. Exciting and extremely well written.