Ashel Backus could stay a Honyocker all his life and starve trying to cultivate his scrubby plot of land, or he could pick up wages working for the despised cattlemen and become a traitor to his people. It was like sitting in on a crooked poker game. No matter how he played his hand, he couldn’t win. But at the moment, his main problem was just staying live. He had stepped on the toes of bug Dandy Cabe, and now Cabe and his gang were out get Ashel any way they could. A wiser man would have lit out fast, but it wasn’t in Ashel’s nature to run away. So he stayed with only a busted gun and his bulldog courage for allies -- knowing each day might be his last.