"Pinnacle western"--Spine.

Christopher Guthrie was bred by money, educated by Harvard, saved from the Civil War by an oak desk in Washington D.C. Towering, fierce Wolf Riker was honed by a kind of suffering Guthrie could never imagine. Fate throws these two men together when a stagecoach from Baton Rouge is set upon by killers. The price for Guthrie's survival is joining Riker's trail drive to Kansas, a mad, brawling charge of longhorns and backstabbers. Guthrie is soon bound by Riker's rules, surrounded by his kill-crazy crew, surviving one danger after another and protecting a beautiful young woman as he goes. And it will be here, amidst floods and battles, cut off from his past and civilization, that Christopher Guthrie will emerge a different man ... for better or worse. As for Wolf Riker, he is running from demons from which only God Himself can save him.