Courtney Burgess' Sister hires Paladin to find her brother, whom she still idolizes after 7 years although her husband dismisses the man as a liar, con man, and possibly something even worse. Guided only by an old letter posted from Sacramento Paladin sets out to find Courtney Burgess.
Two months into his trek Paladin discovers a fatally wounded man who warns him of hostile Nez Perce who have attacked a nearby fort commanded by a Colonel with the same name as the man Paladin seeks. The Colonel's "Army" however is a purely private one and his claims to the land he seized for his base of operations are as spurious as his self-proclaimed rank.
Paladin narrowly escapes a Nez Perce raiding Party and reaches "Fort Burgess" only to find it almost entirely deserted. There is a smattering of bodies, at least one of them a Nez Perce trussed up as if for a hanging. He finds "Colonel Burgess" at his desk slowly dying of the Typhoid fever that sent many of his soldiers fleeing in panic.
The Colonel is attended by a cunning military aide who introduces himself Sam as Hodges. Hodges has a fool-proof plan for escaping the Fort, but they hinge on the Colonel's being alive when the Nez Perce pay their next visit.
Paladin's suspicions are as usual, spot on, and the plot takes a surprising twist after he's forced to resort to his gun. And In the end Paladin, with the help of the Nez Perce, once more rides away pondering the irony of it all.
