Old Jake Kane's hounds weren't much for looks, but they could trail a mountain lion over bare rock, and were famous all through Arizona's wild, broken rimrock country. In particular, there was one red pup that young Johnny Torrington wished he owned. But the pup was a one-man dog, and old Jake was the man.

Then a rogue mountain lion, a real killer, moved into the rimrock country, and both Johnny and the pup realized that they had a lot to learn about hunting, and about each other.

This is Jim Kjelgaard's first book about the Southwest, his present home. By interweaving the viewpoints of the dog, the boy, the lion, and old Jake, he has written one of his finest stories of wilderness life.

From the dust jacket