There's something rotten behind the scenes of COlonel Jasper Pettigrew's Wild West Show, and U.S. Deputy Marshal Custis Long is ready for his big entrance. The Bureau of Indian Affairs believes that the show's Indian sharpshooter was kidnapped and is being forced to perform against her will. If Longarm can't find and free her, the Pawnee tribe she belongs to will go on the warpath. The show has its own problems. A string of bad luck - or is it sabotage from a rival troupe? - plagues the spectable at every performance. And when a man is trampled to death during a stampede, Longarm suspects foul play. But rooting out one killer will only divert Longarm from a bigger threat - the Pawnee uprising...