The fifth book in the adventure series has young Dan Williams in trouble due to frustration over Dave Berringer's seeming rejection of him. Dan's revengeful and childish pranks cause much contention and dissention at the Medicine Bow ranch and the ranch owner, Dave Berringer, socially rejects him. Accused of poisoning Berringer, his heretofore hero and mentor, Dan invents a spectacular means to flee the scene. Contriving a meeting with the old-time bounty hunter, Bill Bentley, the two face terrible peril at boulder hill. Bill is greatly puzzled by this strange young man who seems to know far too much, and who arrived out of the blue to fight by his side. Caught in a perilous moral vice in the old Kingman, Arizona hotel, Dan resorts to offering the wounded bounty hunter three critical choices.