Jed and Toby Teppard had fought for the South during the Civil War. When they returned home to Oregon, they found their parents dead, their ranch burned to the ground, and their cattle strayed or stolen. They had no money, no home – and most of their neighbors didn’t trust them. These boys had been dealt a really bad hand. Regardless of the difficulties all around him, Jed chose an honest path for his future. Toby became an outlaw. The brothers didn’t see eye to eye – but they had a common enemy in Camp Crawford, the hulking deputy marshal who had sworn to kill them both. An outstanding author of Western fiction, Verne Athanas’s stories appeared frequently in such leading magazines as the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and Argosy. He later began writing novels, but his budding career was cut short when Verne suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 44, while serving as the master of ceremonies at the Western Writers of America conference in Boise, Idaho.