the deserter

Army cavalry returning from a 2-week patrol head to a mission finding its inhabitants have been savagely killed by Indians just a short distance from Fort Bowie. Among the dead that sought sanctuary in a desecrated church is the dying wife of the patrol's leader.

Having bitter hostility for his wife's brutal murder by Apaches due to what he believes was army negligence, Capt. Victor Kaleb shoots and wounds the fort commander, Colonel Wade Brown, and deserts the cavalry where he disappears into the southwestern wasteland to kill Apaches.

Two years later when marauding Apaches led by Chief Mangus Durango hold up just out of the cavalry's reach in Mexico, Kaleb is promised amnesty by General Miles in exchange for leading a small band of hand-picked soldiers across the border to wipe out the Indian stronghold known as "La Spina Dorsale Del Diavolo", the Devil's Backbone.

There a battle to the death ensues with Kaleb's desert-trained forces proving successful. After the conflict, the remainder of Kaleb's band presents themselves to General Miles back at Fort Bowie. General Miles explains that he has been ordered to arrest Kaleb upon his return, but all parties present agree to Colonel Brown's resolution to the situation: Victor Kaleb was killed in action at the Devil's Backbone. Kaleb rides away from the fort a free man.