After sending two men to buy horses with the Emergency Fund, Adams is wondering if they will return, especially after one horse returns riderless. A woman of questionable character is ostracized by the indignant wives of the men travelers, but she is the only one with the compasion to care for an orphaned Indian baby. When the baby contracts smallpox, the Major is pressured to leave her and the baby behind. Flint encounters an old enemy at Fort Bridger, which is home to McCullough. Two men traveling on the train, about to rob a young couple of their life savings, discover gold along the trail.
Flint escorts two families from the train to a settlement in Bitter Springs.
But the townspeople refuse to let one couple stay unless they give up their adopted Black son. A woman's husband dies, leaving her to are for their seven children, one of whom is a deaf mute. Flint McCullough finds a bedraggled survivor of an ill-fated wagon train along the trail and a found diary indicates that his survival cost the other passengers their lives. Escorting a family to a settlement, Flint is joined by a concertina playing wanderer who is really a ruthless bandit. McCullough and the family are left to wander without proper clothing or supplies.