The Vinegar Peak wars

the long version

Saddle tramps Cephas Dannehar and Slim Oskin, drifting through the Vinegar Peak country of Arizona Territory, help an old colleague out of trouble, and in doing so get themselves on the wrong side of scheming Nate Sturgis, the self-styled boss of Vinegar Peak. In a lead-peppered struggle between their horse-ranching friends and Sturgis's toughs, bullets are soon flying and fires of destruction lit -- all part of the growing pains of a raw western territory shaping its post-Civil War destiny ...