In the title story, Buck English has been a hard and bitter loner willing to step outside the law ever since his father, Martin, former sheriff of the county, had been killed by outlaws. A friend of Martin’s, Jack Carleton, is sheriff now as well as the owner of the Red Mesa Ranch. Carleton fears that someday he will have to go after Buck if he continues on the trail he is on. To that end, he hires Buck to take over the ramrodding of his ranch as his duties as sheriff do not allow him to tend to the duties of his ranch, which has been suffering from rustling. Buck agrees, but he must submit to Carleton’s order that gunplay is not allowed.
L. P. Holmes (1895–1988), also known as Matt Stuart, was the author of a number of outstanding Western novels, including Somewhere They Die, which received a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.