Plot

Favor is forced to hire several drovers of questionable character. The men question his choices. The herd is facing a dry plain with limited water access. Favor has to decide on the route and his personnel decisions backfire on him.

Favor hired several hands along the way and some of the men are of questionable character and disputes crop up between the drovers. One man is on a quest to kill a younger drover he believes is a gunfighter. The herd has come to a point where it faces crossing a dry plain with limited water or turning back and losing a couple of weeks. One of the hands lost a herd on the route himself but supports Favor's decision to make the crossing. During the crossing tempers flare in the heat and long hours. Ultimately Favor is proven wrong on some of the men he hired. When no water is found, several men lead by Pete leave the drive. When the midpoint waterhole turns up dry, even Favor questions his own decisions and they may lose the herd.—Anonymous

Half the drovers, including his most senior men, desert the drive as Favor makes some wrong guesses and decisions, possibly the worst being leading the drive directly through a waterless plain instead of circling around. First, Favor defended a drover whom the others accused of stealing from them, but eventually he was caught red-handed. Then, an elderly man on the drive who had been trailing a notorious gunfighter whom he had never met personally, accused one of the drovers of being that gunfighter, but Favor would not hear of it, though proof finally confirmed the old man's suspicions. Favor's biggest decision, though, was to duplicate another disastrous drive through the dry plain because Favor figured things would be just as tough circling around. However, Favor's decision seemed unwise as the drive passes one dried-up water hole after another causing Favor and the crew to get particularly testy with each other.—chipe