Life had dealt a bad hand to Bob Steele. A fugitive from the law for a murder he hadn't committed, he was trapped in virtual bondage to Jake Clayborne, a hill-country patriarch who provided protection at a high price. And now that Jake had extended the term of bondage, Bob had no choice but to comply, for he knew there was almost no way of escaping from Jake's well-guarded hills. Then, fate added an extra twist in the person of a seventeen-year-old white girl whom Jake had bought from a Cheyenne chief, and Bob was forced to reach a decision. He'd come upon the girl as she hid from Jake in the woods, and the terrible scars on her back convinced him that he couldn't send her back. The only chance the two of them had was to run, but that was really no chance at all - if they got past Jake's guards, Bob was certain to face a hangman's rope for the murder charge against him!