Castro send him north to Puerto, Texas, to guard a load of silver ore, with the intention of smuggling arms.

He is approached by the head of the Texas Rangers division in Puerto about joining after the Captain confirms his identity and lets Brady know that he will not be prosecuted for killing his father's murderer.

After killing a man who injured a friend, he returns to Mexico and is sent on an impossible errand to deliver a load of gunpowder by General Marco Castro, the brother of Cipriano.

A crucial character to the story is Brady's horse, a black Andalusian stallion named Lágrimas ("tears").

What is extra comes in author Lea's fine descriptive writing, a love for the West that is conveyed with grace and dignity, an authentic sense of place.

[3] "One of the finest of all Southwest novels by a Southwesterner, whose power with pencil and paint is perfectly matched by his way with words," said Lawrence Clark Powell.