After six years as head rider for the Iron Cross ranch, Burn Webb was dismissed - no reason given. He needed a ranch and Ellie Muller for his wife. He must have the nineteen hundred acres in Timberline Meadows, the common groung between Iron Cross and Arrowhead. Cowman faced cowman over the question of open range versus barbed wire, or the fenced-in range. With Timberline right between the two largest cow outfits in the country, Webb prepared himself for the inevitable violence that would erupt and hoped he was tough enough to handle it.