Zagor and Chico stop in the town of Goldridge on their way home. They find out that there someone is killing the miners in a cruel way, as if they were torn to pieces by some wild beast. The locals say it's the forest spirit Wendigo and Zagor decides to i
Black Deer fraudulently wants to become the chief of the Salishes so that he can trade dubious goods with the whites with impunity, but the Axe Ghost manages to throw him out of the village with all his supporters...
Together with Chico and Trampi, Zagor helps Pickens free his wife, and eventually clashes with the kidnappers, where he meets the titular Mr. Smith, a strange man who is in fact the real reason for all this complication.