Central Kansas Library System

In California, the Southern Pacific Railway is prying the West wide open, and the land is worth its weight in gold. While some men get in on the action, and some get out of the way, one group of settlers is making a stand--and holding up the railway. Turning to Alan Pinkerton's Chicago detective agency, the railroad robber barons hire the perfect agent to penetrate the settler's organization, a man who learned a spy's trade in the Civil War.

He came off the frontier: a buffalo hunter, a gambler, a loner. In Abilene he won a saloon at cards, and earned the fear of a lawless town. He began a rampage of ambition and deal-making that forever changed a land called Kansas and the Indian Territories. But along the way the deeds and misdeeds of Jake Kincaid affected more than the frontier--they shaped the lives of his two sons. One who became a lawman. One who became an outlaw. Both destined...