C.T. Baker

Josh, a kid of not yet 12 years, becomes - and continues to be - the talk of the town of Willis, Colorado, when he rides into town leading a string of twenty Indian ponies and forty or fifty head of horses and mules, and, most shocking, with several Indian scalps dangling from the pony manes and one from a lance that the boy is holding. Sheriff Dodson decides to get to the core of the drama and soon the orphan boy also finds his way to the hearts of the Sheriff and his wife.
The  people of Willis, however, finds it hard to accept Josh, never forgetting his dramatic entry...