Horse-runner Tom Sample shows up at the Tack Ranch one day, with a smirk on his face and a stranger in tow, Andy Blair. Andy's thoroughbred colt was stolen several years back, and he's never given up hope that he'd be found one day. Tom suggests that the wild horse, King, is Andy's long-lost colt, and offers to catch the wild stallion...for a fee, of course.

Ben and Dixie try to come up with a plan to keep King free and wild. Barring that, they intend to do anything to protect the wild herds from injury or worse, as Tom and his gang strive to capture King, no matter what it takes...including killing wild horses... ( )

Tom Sample returns to Tack Ranch, a place he hasn't been welcome at for two years, ever since he tried to catch King, the magnificient black stallion that Ben and Dixie Darby had sworn to protect. But Tom Sample has brought with him Andy Blair, breeder of race-horses. Several years ago, Andy lost his prize colt Midnight Chief. Now he has finally
found him. King is Midnight Chief, and Andy has hired Tom Sample and his band of horse-runners to catch him--and there is nothing Ben and Dixie can do to stop them...

There was nothing wrong with this story (besides the fact that a page was missing from my copy). I thoroughly enjoyed it. It gave the characters from The Midnight Colt added depth and background and Glenn Balch successfully made King a realistic wild horse. It is a real shame that almost none of his books have been reprinted recently, as they are some of the finest horse stories I have ever read, and Glenn Balch is one of my favorite authors. This book is doubtless very hard to find, as are all his works, but I can't recommend them highly enough. ( )