Trama

So that a stagecoach road through the Dakota Black Hills can be completed, Hardie arrives to negotiate with the Pawnees who have killed a crew's hunter consigning the crew to meager rations and who continually harass the crew.

Wells Fargo is often responsible for providing supplies and communications to remote areas that are not served by the train system. One of the areas is the Black Hills region in the Dakotas. Wells Fargo has a crew there trying to build a road for its freighters and stages but they are being harassed by the Pawnee tribe led by Iron Hand. The group's hunter Newt Stover was killed a month ago by the Pawnee. After that the foreman Fred Heston called the 5th Cavalry in but when the Pawnee attacked River Fork the cavalry had to return. The camp and men are being harassed but never in a pitched battle. Jim Hardie is sent there to see if he can resolve the problems. He arrives finding the men hungry and mad. During his first night one of the men, Ben, catches a young Pawnee brave trying to steal into the camp. Hardie seeing he is young and trying to kill his first man, decides on a plan of action but the men give him little chance of success or survival.—Anonymous