Leo Guild, sometime bounty hunter, has spent the previous three weeks riding shotgun for one of the last stage lines remaining in the Midwest. But jobs were few and far between and Guild was nearly broke.

So it was foolish for Guild to contemplate refusing the simple job he's asked to take—finding a missing prizefighter. Guild had always hated boxing; he considered it primitive and repellant. Now he finds himself taking an even more intense dislike to John T. Stoddard, the boxing promoter who wants to hire him. Still, the money is good for a few hours' work, and Guild decides to take the job.

Guild quickly finds the fighter holed up in the home of his Mexican girlfriend, but the fighter has some grievances with Stoddard and he takes them out on Guild. After getting soundly beaten by the angry fighter, Guild should have called it a day. He never anticipated the trouble he signed up for when he foolishly agreed to guard the fighter and the purse.