When Major Frank Paddock and Barnes Kilrone were dashing young officers in Paris, they had both fallen in love with the same woman.    But now they are men in exile on one of the harshest territories of the American West, and Paddock has made a choice that will plunge both men into a battle for their lives and souls. While Paddock leads his company of soldiers in pursuit of a Bannock war party that has massacred one of his patrols, Kilrone is left to guard a fortress full of women and children.    And in a matter of hours Kilrone knows that Paddock's choice was wrong, fatally wrong.    Fueled by a white man's greed, the Indians are aiming for the fort--and Kilrone's fight will be to the end--.