Trapped by forces which he cannot understand, and half-crazed by the torturing pain and panic which he tries desperately both to overcome and to hide, Crawford gets himself more and more hopelessly entangled in what, as old Delcazar points out, looks like the most dangerous thing that ever hit the wild brush country. Crawford is offered a strange proposition by sinister Dr. Huerta; he listens to Merida's spellbinding tale of Santa Anna's chests—and as he listens, the jagged third of a map he possesses, plus a dying man's painfully gasped out words, take on a new and important meaning; he waits, trapped, weaponless, for a killer to come nearer, nearer—And he delivers to his other pursuers the body of one sent out to kill him—only to become more deeply enmeshed in new and still more terrifying trouble. Crawford's irritation at being stirred by Merida, whom he alternately respects and suspects of playing him for a fool, doesn't prevent him from riding secretly with her in the night in search of a place so malicious few men have ever stepped foot in it. Nor does it later prevent him from risking an agonizing death to follow her into it.
Before the true murderer reveals himself, and before Crawford can again call himself a whole man, much violent action takes place. Set against the exciting background of the untamed Texas border country, this is a thrilling brew of suspense, quick death, adventure, and love.
List of Chapters—
| [I.] | Circumstantial Evidence |
| [II.] | Santa Anna's Chests |
| [III.] | Huerta Was Right! |
| [IV.] | Unreasoning Fear |
| [V.] | Huerta Makes a Proposition |
| [VI.] | "Tell Us What Happened." |
| [VII.] | Sunday Celebration |
| [VIII.] | Best Roper in the World |
| [IX.] | Still in the Throes of Fear |
| [X.] | Flight From Snake Thickets |
| [XI.] | Old Friends Reunited |
| [XII.] | Conqueror and Conquered |
| [XIII.] | Violence in the Bunkhouse |
| [XIV.] | Challenging Snake Thickets |
| [XV.] | Treasure Hunt Climax |