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.

Jackson Gregory was a California schoolteacher before turning to writing. His work first appeared in Adventure in 1915; in short order he became a regular in Western Story. He did mysteries, fantasy, and south sea adventure, but wrote mainly westerns, producing several per year till his death in 1943.