Missouri Sloper and Elmer Law, having given up their range riding jobs to wander, have drifted into the desert town of Molech. With the wind blowing from the southeast, a dark sulphurous cloud has descended upon the town from the nearby smelter so that everyone heard the shots that killed Walt Rathbone, but no one saw the killing. When Sloper stumbles over the fallen man, he and Law carry him to the saloon and would have been lynched for his murder if Horntoad Holt hadn’t intervened.