The Desert Valley is set in the desert country of Arizona and New Mexico. Professor James Longstreet and his daughter Helen have come west to prospect for gold. They encounter a mysterious campfire, with bacon cooking and coffee boiling, but no camper to be found. Later, they meet Alan Howard of the old Diaz Rancho, who tells them the camper left in a hurry, as though pursued, and mentions an Indian legend of the god Pookhonghoya, who hunts the souls of enemies with a strange wolflike companion.

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