Sticky Ropes

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. On the eve of taking office as sheriff, Dusty Corbett wakes hungover in a corral to discover his prized pinto, saddle, and gear stolen, the hitch-rack rope smeared with syrup in the signature of the notorious Sticky Rope gang. In divided Big Bear County, where that outlaw band has terrorized the country for more than a year, Dusty's embarrassment quickly hardens into outrage—and into a rough, funny test of his nerve. With his sharp-tongued friend and soon-to-be deputy, Weary Willis, at his side, he taunts the gang by nailing their own sticky rope to the sheriff's office, only to have a bullet smash through the window in reply. Dusty's search for answers leads him through saloons, ranch country, and a tangled trail of violence, from the welcoming Cross-Anchor ranch and the blunt wisdom of Ma Magruder to the stubborn broncs and hard men of the range. When Palo Huston turns up injured and raving about "Sticky Ropes," and another horseman is found shot nearby, Dusty digs into the evidence, the politics, and the lies. As an inquest closes a suspicious death too neatly, a ferret-faced watcher in the crowd suggests the real danger is only beginning.