Compare this with McCracken's Pirate of the North (see above) for another gripping story of a boy's fight to outwit the wild. On the Michelson's eastern sheep ranch in Hopewell valley, 18 year old John stays home from college for a year to help, after a band of wild dogs have played havoc with the flock and badly injured his father. A red dog, the leader of the pack, is the craftiest, defiant to the end, but leaves John one of his pups to raise. Concurrently, there is John's growing friendship with Prof. Danville and the prospect of studying agriculture at Rutgers.