Clay Bell was a onetime drifter who'd grown weary of long trails and settled on the sweetest land he'd ever seen. For six years he fought Indians, rustlers, and the wilderness itself to make the Bar-B ranch the prize of the Deep Creek Range. But now all that Clay has worked for is threatened. Jud Devitt, a ruthless speculator from the East, wants Bell's rich timberland—and he doesn't care how he gets it. Backing Devitt are tame judges, crooked politicians, and fifty of the toughest lumberjacks in the county. Devitt doesn't know how to lose. Bell figures he's just the one to teach him.