Shad Cain was on a little courting trip without much hope of a successful outcome, when he is tracked down by a friend with a mission. It seems there were those who had used the lure of free fertile farmland with plenty of water, to recruit over a hundred Mexican families to a slave labor mine deep in the isolated Capitan Mountains. The families… men, women, and children, were being forced to work long hours with only enough food to keep them going. The families were being kept separated in barbed wire compounds to prevent escapes. The mine operators had a force of over twenty tough border trash bandits for guards. Even if some were to escape, they would have no idea as to where they were, and starting out in the wrong direction could be disastrous. Not many miles to the west lay the Mescalero Apache reservation. The Apaches were by no means pleased with their situation, and were ready to take it out on anyone who might stumble onto their land. Cain passes up the chance to press his futile suit to put his life on the line trying to save others. All he had to hear was they were working children as young as seven years, to send him and Dog to southern New Mexico and the Silver Lining Mine. By the time they reached Roswell, they had picked up two others, but that meant the odds were still no better than 6 to 1.