Shawn Starbuck had searched for his brother Ben across the whole southwest—and now the gap seemed to be narrowing. That was why Shawn couldn’t refuse to join the rag-tag posse that Sheriff Harry Brandon was raising to hunt down a thieving crew of outlaw killers. Because there was a hard-luck chance that Ben was among the ones Brandon vowed to bring back, perhaps alive but preferably dead. So Starbuck rode out toward the high country with Brandon, and a bitter black cowboy named Rome, and a fall-down drunk named Glider, and a yellow belly named Moody. And Starbuck had to decide when the showdown came which way to point his gun ...