Lance Barlow was only nineteen when he started riding with a Missouri militia group known as the Border Ruffians. He'd joined them seeking adventure, but their wanton destruction and murder of the Free-Staters was too much for him. Finally, after a brutal attack on a farm family, Lance couldn't take any more. He rebelled and switched sides. He reunited with his best friend, a freed slave named Shadrack, and together the pair set off to ride with the newly organized Pony Express. But Lance got more adventure than he had bargained for when he was forced to rescue Shadrack from slavers. Still working for the Pony Express, the friends escaped west to Utah with the Missouri militia and a Marysville slaver on their trail. They had no idea that the real danger lay in front of them, waiting in the midst of Paiute country.