Joel Shelby is tied up naked and spread-eagled on a river bank. The young cowboy has been captured by a group of renegade Apaches while panning for gold on the Salt River Canyon. They left him overnight, but plan to return at daybreak to torture him.As he lies there, beaten, sun-baked and delirious, Joel thinks back on his life and all the troubles he has encountered on his journey to the Salt River.He left the ranch with his half-wild dog Snake,...