For Smoke and Sally Jensen, the Sugarloaf Ranch near the Colorado-Kansas border is the perfect place to stake their claim, raise some cattle, and start a new family. When a man claiming to be an army colonel arrives in Big Rock with a well-armed militia, the dream becomes a living nightmare. Colonel Lamar Talbot claims there's a war looming with the Cheyenne Indians. And only he can save them from a bloody massacre--by launching a bloody counterattack. The Cheyenne war parties are a very real threat, and the tribe's charismatic leader, Black Drum, is launching raids on local ranches, farms, and the railroads, too. When the war reaches the Sugarloaf Ranch, Sally is attacked--and Smoke grabs his guns. -- Adapted from book jacket.