An Apache indian has his eye on scalping Paladin.

After a man dies, the reading of his will causes three additional murders.

Paladin is robbed by scavengers and then forced to cross the mountain in winter without his horse, guns or coat.

Paladin urges a momma's boy farmer to win back his wayward mail-order bride, by besting party-animal neighbor Rud Saxon in a dance contest.

With no help from local law enforcement, a writer hires Paladin to find her fiancé; in the roughest gutter on the Barbary coast.

Colonel Draco invites Paladin to investigate an "insurrection" over water rights. Paladin discovers that Draco was crippled eight months previously and wants revenge. Paladin has no intention of being Draco's executioner.