"Hie-eeee."

The shout came from above him on the hill. Clay turned just his head, kept the bow pointed down the hill. Behind him, higher up on the hill were three Comanche warriors with guns, the barrels of two of them pointed toward him. In the middle was a white-haired Indian on a paint pony. Four more ponies appeared over the crest of the hill until two more gun barrels and two drawn bows also pointed at him. The older Comanche looked down at him, without expression. His hair was white and long. Hawk feathers were tied to his pony's mane in a call for rain that would have made Clay look up at the sky if he didn't know he looked death square in the face.

* * *

The rush for gold in Texas was, at best, a flash in the pan. That didn't mean people weren't ready to kill over rumors of strikes and lost mines. Young Jud Harper, dragged into the area as an indentured servant, finds himself in the middle of stirred-up Indians, and desperate men, like Clay Bonner, who the Comanche call "ghost warrior"-a young man they would love to kill, if he isn't already dead. A troop of ex-rebels wants gold, as does rancher Burton Campbell and his fast-shooting cowhands. Miners pour into the area thick with greedy men who, disappointed in their search for gold, all fix their sights on Clay's silver mine. Hoyt Maxton and his partner Miles, two genuine hard cases, seek Curly Bob Ross, with an agenda of revenge, but they soon get swept into fighting for their lives. Clay thinks only of Mariah, who couldn't have picked a worse time to be pregnant. Wind sweeps the Central Texas hills like a whip's snap through the leather-slap of confrontations, chases, and bitter fights. It's a hard and violent wind, filled with the crack of bullets in the wind.