One Man Posse — Max Brand

Sleeper was little more than a range derelict, a kid who was too lazy to ride the grub line. But what he wanted he usually got, as in the case of the great golden stallion named Careless, for whose ownership half a hard-shooting country was willing and able to make gun argument. Then a sudden flash flood trapped Sleeper and Careless. The monstrous wave meant certain death, but a horseman on the bank cast a rope that saved the pair. Bones was the horseman's name, and there was a price on his head. Before he could escape, a posse had surrounded him. Jail meant the rope for Bones; Sleeper knew he'd need help to free him. Pop Lowry and his secret band of cut-throats would do the job - at a death-threatening price for Sleeper. But the debt to Bones was one that Sleeper had to pay, even though it was to take him down a long, dangerous trail ...