The Spirit-with-the-Hatchet must face Buddy Fox, a notorious criminal and a master of disguise. After stealing the identity of a local nobleman, Fox is giving a party for the wealthiest people in the region, with the intent of relieving them of all their valuables...
Cico is attacked by a young Fox, little more than a teenager. Zagor stops him and takes him back to his camp, where the tribal chief apologizes and offers him a sumptuous dinner.
However, Zagor hears moans from a hut, and understands that the Foxes have something to hide: he therefore leaves the camp. He returns at night and manages to free the prisoner: it is Doctor Jim Galloway, kidnapped by the Foxes to treat a typhus epidemic.
Pursued by the Foxes, the three take refuge at the top of a hill, where Zagor puts up a strenuous resistance. The doctor, however, realizes that he wants to help the Indian tribes voluntarily, and therefore stays with them, putting an end to the fight.
On the way to the cabin, Zagor and Chico come across the abandoned carriage of "Bimbo" Sullivan , a merchant that Zagor knows.
Tracking him down thanks to his tracks, Zagor saves him from two Indians, but "Bimbo" runs away without almost saying goodbye to them, forgetting to take his hat. Zagor and Chico continue along the road, and stop at a hut, where they sleep. When he wakes up, Chico is wearing "Bimbo's" hat. However, two criminals arrive who, thinking that Chico is "Bimbo" Sullivan, want to sell him some contraband goods. Zagor intervenes, and in the fight he defeats them and sends them to prison.
Thanks to a mistake of Chico’s, Zagor and his pot-bellied partner cross the dark abysses of the Gate of Fear in a canoe and find themselves in a valley where time has stopped in the Paleolithic era. The peace-loving Tutelos are dominated by the Wasakis, who know the great secret of fire!
The Spirit-with-the-Hatchet is on a new special mission: finding the right location to construct a new fort. Lieutenant Dubrosky, a dense and arrogant demoted officer, doesn’t agree at all with Zagor’s suggestions, and he is ready to wage a bloody Indian war to prevail and take back the place he has lost in the army...
