Sawtooth Ranch

Along Idaho's Quirt Creek, Brit Hunter and Frank Johnson keep a small cattle ranch going beside the far larger Sawtooth Cattle Company. Their herd barely pays for supplies and wages, while neighbouring properties have passed into the company's hands. B. M. Bower opens this Western novel with the partners' working lives and Brit's family history, showing how the romance of ranching can give way to loneliness, cramped rooms and financial strain.

Brit's daughter Lorraine brings another perspective to this world. In a tense passage, she and Swan carry her injured father through a canyon towards help, balancing a makeshift stretcher over difficult ground. Swan's claim that he can send messages by thought leaves Lorraine doubtful even as she relies on his strength and practical planning. Cattle brands, creek beds and the search for medical help give the story its physical detail. The story offers readers of Western fiction a view of ranch life shaped by uneven power, family distance and the urgent need to find help.