SAMUEL J. WINCHESTER is an escaped convict, wanted by the law for murder, but once he was an officer and a gentleman.
Winchester was an 1831 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point NY. Graduating at the top of his class as an engineer, he worked for ten years building roads, bridges and fortifications.
Tim Bannon and a young Ranger, Tate Slocum, are sent to Sierra Blanca just before Christmas to stop a budding range war before it starts. Before their assignment is completed, they will find out a range war is the least of their problems. On their way home, their train is stranded by a ferocious blizzard. On board the train is a doctor bringing badly needed smallpox vaccine to the town of Toyah.