[1] John Killibrew, a blacksmith, had convinced a number of settlers to follow him to California and found the town of Arkana.
When he returns to the town, no one will help him recover the engine, in part because the site is in the middle of hostile Indian country.
Since Killibrew used to live with the Indians many years ago, earning the sobriquet "Big Beaver", he persuades them to give the engine back to him.
John and Mary haul the engine back towards the town through rain, facing a bear and temporarily losing it in a cave-in.
Mary sells enough shares in the steam engine to pay John's debt and the sheriff prudently decides to drop the other charges against Killibrew.