Stranded on the limitless prairie, a seven-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl fight for life.

Bud Miles was a boy when he crossed the  Mississippi. But Bud buried his father after an Indian attack, and as the wagon train pushed on through Sioux country, the boy stood as tall as any man. . . .  
Tell Sackett killed cougars at fourteen and fought a  war at fifteen. Now Tell was hauling dangerous freight—a soldier's wife and a fortune in gold—knowing that someone wanted him dead. . . .  
Laurie...

They came west to stay, risking their blood to dig the gold, ride the range, conquer the greedy, and carve out a legacy of freedom. Men honed by desert fires and edged by combat with fist and gun. Women tested to the limit of endurance by an unrelenting land. Now, in a long-awaited collection of his stories, Louis L'Amour tells of the real heroes of the frontier, the survivors for whom hanging tough was as natural as drawing breath.