When Jesse Ross was eighteen he was forced to learn firsthand that a person's life could be changed irrevocably by one deed-and the endless chain of events this original act sets into motion. That was something Jesse's neighbor Gray Fletcher had experienced years before when he was with the Texas Rangers. Gray had joined to seek retaliation against ma-rauding Indians who had killed his wife and one of their children. Now Jesse had killed a Union soldier to protect his family and was on the run. His one hope was to join other Missourians in Slaughter's Rangers, an underground outfit. But re-venge had not been enough to sustain Gray years ago; how long would it be enough for Jesse?