The Shadow Shooter

Soapy Weed is a good-hearted cowboy with terrible luck in clothes, a talent for trouble, and a growing interest in Yvonne LeClere, the spirited daughter of a proud ranch family. In Silver River Valley, where payday dances, gossip, and ranch rivalries shape frontier life, a simple evening ride to escort Yvonne from the IS ranch to the dance opens into romance, jealousy, and danger. Around booming Chongo, newly energized by the railroad and a nearby silver strike, cattleman Tuck Hayward rules with cold political skill, while old resentments over contracts, debts, and suspected rustling simmer beneath the town's lively surface. Joe LeClere's anger at Tuck and his sister's suitors erupts in a brutal fight with Kid O'Neil, whose broken nose only deepens the feud. When O'Neil is later found shot from behind, Soapy realizes the killing is no honorable duel and carries the grim discovery to the sheriff, torn between fear and conscience. As Joe faces a murder hearing and the town buzzes with rumors, Soapy and Cling Heffner lurch through a comic spree of drunken serenades, stolen fiddle, and jailhouse chaos, capturing the wild, rowdy heart of the ranch crowd. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.