CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
IBack from the Dead [3]
IICrooked Work [13]
IIIMistress Mary Quite Contrary [24]
IVThe Branding-Iron [31]
VTex Lynch [41]
VIThe Blood-Stained Saddle [51]
VIIRustlers [60]
VIIIThe Hoodoo Outfit [70]
IXRevelations [81]
XBuck Finds Out Something [91]
XIDanger [106]
XIIThwarted [119]
XIIICounterplot [127]
XIVThe Lady From the Past [136]
XV“Blackleg” [145]
XVIThe Unexpected [153]
XVIIThe Primeval Instinct [166]
XVIIIA Change of Base [176]
XIXThe Mysterious Motor-Car [186]
XXCatastrophe [197]
XXIWhat Mary Thorne Found [208]
XXIINerve [219]
XXIIIWhere the Wheel Tracks Led [230]
XXIVThe Secret of North Pasture [239]
XXVThe Trap [248]
XXVISheriff Hardenberg Intervenes [256]
XXVIIAn Hour Too Late [268]
XXVIIIForebodings [276]
XXIXCreeping Shadows [284]
XXXLynch Scores [291]
XXXIGone [301]
XXXIIBuck Rides [309]
XXXIIICarried Away [319]
XXXIVThe Fight on the Ledge [332]
XXXVThe Dead Heart [339]
XXXVITwo Trails Converge [345]

3

SHOE-BAR STRATTON

CHAPTER I

BACK FROM THE DEAD

Westward the little three-car train chugged its way fussily across the brown prairie toward distant mountains which, in that clear atmosphere, loomed so deceptively near. Standing motionless beside the weather-beaten station shed, the solitary passenger watched it absently, brows drawn into a single dark line above the bridge of his straight nose. Tall, lean, with legs spread apart a bit and shoulders slightly bent, he made a striking figure against that background of brilliant sky and drenching, golden sunlight. For a brief space he did not stir. Then of a sudden, when the train had dwindled to the size of a child’s toy, he turned abruptly and drew a long, deep breath.

It was a curious transformation. A moment before his face—lined, brooding, somber, oddly pale for that country of universal tan—looked almost old. At least one would have felt it the face of a man who 4 had recently endured a great deal of mental or physical suffering. Now, as he turned with an unconscious straightening of broad shoulders and a characteristic uptilt of square, cleft chin, the lines smoothed away miraculously, a touch of red crept into his lean cheeks, an eager, boyish gleam of expectation flashed into the clear gray eyes that rested caressingly on the humdrum, sleepy picture before him.