Titus Bass, the hero of Carry the Wind and Crack in the Sky, finds himself an unwilling witness to the death of his way of life as a mountain man. But Bass chooses to fight for a home in the mountains he loves--against the Blackfoot, smallpox, and against the bitter dangers of a land that is as deadly as it is beautiful.

The time of the mountain man is coming to an end, but some—like Titus Bass will not exit gently. A brilliantly exciting and thoroughly researched novel of the end of the dream that was the unmapped and virgin wilderness in the American West starring the king of the mountain men, Titus Bass. A new dawn was rising over the vast, once uncharted territories west of the Mississippi. And for the original trailblazers like Titus Bass—bold, resourceful men who dine on buffalo meat, trade in beaver pelts, and live among the warrior bands—the world will never be the same. Traveling with his wife and infant daughter, Bass heads north into Crow territory. But what should have been a joyous reunion with his wife’s people turns to tragedy when Bass’s family is kidnapped by the warring Blackfoot. A deadly outbreak of smallpox, brought west by the white man, threatens both Indian nations with annihilation. And another kind of epidemic—this one of greed—brought by two powerful, profit-hungry trading outfits will determine the fate not only of free trappers like Titus Bass . . . but the destiny of the entire nation. Praise for Terry C. Johnston “No one does it better . . . one of the great frontier historical novelists of our generation.”—Tulsa World “Terry C. Johnston is an authentic American treasure.”—Loren D. Estleman