Heaven's Outskirts — R. William Rogers

Twenty-three-year-old John Wainwright was pretty much a loner. He was purely content to happen around the mountains, tending his traps and living the loner existance the Lord had steered him to.But all that was tossed by the wayside the day a couple of strangers showed up needing his help with finding a pair of wagons the Utes had made off with from their wagon train. It wasn't so much just the wagons that needed finding, as it was the folks who had been caught up in the ruckus.It doesn't take long before the ensuing undertaking turns out to be one of locating and freeing the beleagured captives before it's too late. However, John's efforts to get them back gets a mite complicated after a duo of scoundrels show up and shoot one of the Utes in the process.With the captives eventually managing an escape on their own, and while trying to find their way back to the wagon train, they have a run-in with the lowlifes, and a vengeful need takes ahold of one of the gunmen that can wind up only one way.By this time, and with John having gotten himself clean up to his eyeballs in the whole thing, an arm's length relationship develops between him and one of the young women he's trying to get safely back to the wagon train.