Publisher's Synopsis
It is 1846, the year of the Mexican war. Ray Dobbs, a retired trapper mountain man is guiding the Earl of Drumcliffe and his entourage on a frontier hunting expedition at a large basin deep in the Rocky Mountains known as Bayou Salade, present day South Park, Colorado. The resident Ute nation is alarmed at the efficiency of the Earl's killing and takes steps to foil the hunt. The Earl rejects Ute concerns. Ray summons Army troops to forestall open conflict. The Earl's son Percival and Ouray, the young Ute guide, conspire to blunt the Earl's militancy. Percival, his manservant Young Tom and Dusty, an abused runaway and aspiring mountain man, vie for the heart of a beautiful Mexican girl. This competition is to be settled with civility in a bare knuckle boxing match. The match outcome is unexpected. This story is told by Percival, Young Tom, Dusty and Ouray, as well as Ray's collected orphans; Moe, an autistic savant, Bluebird, a small Cheyenne girl and Little Weasel, a white boy captured in infancy and raised by Cheyenne.
