Journey from Hell

In 1877, a bank in Hell, a town in far west Texas, becomes the meeting place for two men who once rode together with Quantrell's Raiders. One has come to rob the bank, while the other is the town's sheriff and steps in to stop him. During the chase that follows, the outlaw rescues the sheriff when the sheriff's horse goes down, and the old friendship is renewed. The two agree to ride west in search of a place where they can live in peace.

Along the way, they gather others who are also looking for refuge: a widowed preacher standing six-foot-six and his twelve-year-old daughter, both from Indiana; a twenty-one-year-old Black musician who works as a physician's assistant and has left Boston to seek his fortune out West; a twenty-year-old young woman raised as a cowhand on a Colorado ranch; a six-month-old baby named Peter; and a Jersey cow named Pansy.

The travelers face Native Americans, outlaws, and a string of other encounters, with both adventures and mishaps along the way. They finally reach New Canaan in the New Mexico Territory, where they plan to settle. Troubles remain, but after a last gunfight with the Hank Dandy gang, the group finds rest and romance at the end of the trek that began in Hell.