'Are those fellas at the crick going to shoot at us marshal?' a confused Zeke asked. Marshal Houseman gave his deputy a fierce twist of a grin. 'I reckon they will boy when we go fire-ballin' in on them doin' some shooting of our own.' Much to Marshal Houseman's displeasure 'Hanging' Judge Parker has sent him and his greenhorn deputy, Zeke Butler, to put paid to a band of raiders who are burning out Indian farmers in the Cherokee Strip in Indian Territory. With the aid of Bear Paw, a newly reformed drunk, and some of his kin, the two lawmen face the raiders in a series of shoot-outs which confirms Zeke as one of the Judge's toughest manhunters.