"All Dain Talmage wanted was to make a go of homesteading on the Kansas prairie and win the heart and hand of auburn haired Valina Kern over his rival, Addison Scurry, slick owner of the frontier town's general store. Then the husband of Dani's sister was killed in a Cheyenne raid and she and her baby captured. Dain struck out in search of them, swearing revenge on two men Roman Nose, notorious leader of the Dog Soldiers, the Cheyennes' fearsome raiding force and Jed Wolfcry, the hostile half-breed who played a sinister role in the raid on Dain's family. Joining a makeshift band of volunteers composed of battle-scarred Civil War veterans and embittered settlers who had seen their families vanish in Cheyenne raids, Dain helps track Roman Nose and his Dog Soldiers to the Arikaree River near the Kansas Nebraska border. Though outnumbered eight to one, the volunteers are determined to take on the Cheyenne warriors-no matter what the cost. Fresh from viewing grisly evidence of the raiders' savagery and facing the full reality of his personal tragedy, Dain plunges into the heart of a battle he never expects to survive"-- Provided by publisher.