A thirteen-year-old boy fears that his uncle is going to take him away from the small water-stop town in Arizona Territory where his father is the telegraph operator. In the meantime he has adventures with Indians and with the trainmen. When Old Harry shows up with a bullet in his leg, the train in stopped and he is put aboard to go to Flagstaff, Arizona. Rusty's Uncle Robert, a southern-bred gentleman, comes to the water-stop station, with the idea of taking Rusty back to his home where he can be raised 'as a proper gentlemen'. While Uncle Robert is busy, Rusty flags down the train heading east, and gets aboard. But evidently, Dad, who had been away from the depot at the time Rusty left, had returned and sent a message to Peach Springs, the first town between them and Flagstaff, and asks that they keep Rusty there. Rusty flees the train, runs into an Indian, Suma, whom he had befriended. Suma agrees to hide him in his Hualapai village not far from Peach Springs. It is a story full of excitement, Indian lore, old-time railroading, and the patience to understand another person's lifestyle.