Dick Rutherford, known simply as the Colonel, had set out into the West to find his fortune, accompanied only by his young companion, Christy Deever. But it looked like the frontier would provide more danger than money...until the Colonel and Christy met Stone-That-Shines, a Mandan warrior who possessed a medicine stone that gave him his name. As soon as the Colonel got a close look at the medicine stone, he knew immediately what made it shine—a rich vein of quartz gold. The source of that stone would be the answer to his quest. But first the Colonel and Christy had to escape the Mandan chief and his determined warriors. They were after something too—the Colonel's hide.