Tappan's burro: A prospector named Tappan rescues a sickly, lop-eared baby burro and does not realize that this is to be one of the most important things he will ever do. Black Jack: "Black Jack Hollis had been killed as Elizabeth Cornish watched. Recklessly, joyously, his black hair flying, Jack had ridden into town to see his infant son. Then a shotgun, fired from a window, had blasted him from his horse and flung him to his death in the street. 'I want his baby. Go out and get that baby for me, Vance,' the spinster Elizabeth ordered. 'My dear,' her brother Vance declared, 'before that baby is twenty-five-- that was his father's age-- he'll have shot a man ... Blood will out, like murder, Sis ... Bet you on it!'". The trail to Crazy Man: Shanghaied into forced labor on a merchant vessel, Charles Rodney dies aboard ship from repeated beatings -- but not before deeding part of his ranch to Rafe Caradec, whom he hopes will protect his family.