The Stalking Moon

In the Arizona of 1881, veteran scout Sam Varner is present when a detachment of Army troopers rounds up a group of Apaches who have escaped from nearby reservations. Among the Indians is a white woman, Sarah Carver, who has been a captive of the Apaches for 10 years. Explaining that her 9-year-old halfbreed son is endangered by the Indians, Sarah wants permission to leave the area immediately. Since Sam is preparing to retire as a scout and settle down on a ranch he has bought in New Mexico, he consents to accompany Sarah and the boy to a railway depot. Salvaje, a renegade Apache, goes on a murderous rampage in order to get his hands on the boy, and when Sarah confesses that Salvaje is the child's father, Sam offers to take the woman and child with him. After traveling many miles by train and buckboard, they safely reach the ranch and settle down to a silent, peaceful existence. They are eventually joined by Nick, a halfbreed friend of Sam's, who warns that Salvaje has been tracking them all the way from Arizona. After Sam has discovered the mutilated bodies of a nearby Mexican family, he returns to his ranch and finds that Salvaje has kidnaped Sarah.