< b>Spur Award-winning Author< /b>< P>Walt Durand is on his way to Red Cloud. It is when he is riding into a valley only a short distance from the town that his horse is downed by rifle fire from the rocky ridge above him. He has no alternative but to seek shelter behind the body of his dead horse. The sharpshooters are not in a hurry. It is a waiting game, and the next and last move will be Durand's. The only person known to Durand in Red Cloud is Larry Cramer. Otherwise, Durand is a total strange He speculates that perhaps the hidden sharpshooters chose the wrong man, but there is no way he can make his identity as a stranger known without losing his life. As best he can determine, at least three gunmen are blasting at him from the rock ledges and brush, and several times he gets the impression that there is a fourth gun. That many rifles all trained on one man seem all out of proportion for an ordinary hold-up or trail killing.< P>Fred Grove's Indian heritage of Osage and Sioux and his lifelong love of horses bring to his Western stories a unique point of view and authenticity.