E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 27355-h.htm or 27355-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/3/5/27355/27355-h/27355-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/3/5/27355/27355-h.zip) SHOE-BAR STRATTON by JOSEPH B. AMES [Illustration: "I can stand here till I get tired," retorted Lynch.] A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York Published by arrangement with The Century Company Printed in U. S. A. Copyright, 1922, by The Century Co. Printed in U. S. A. To BILL McBRIDE CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Back from the Dead 3 II Crooked Work 13 III Mistress Mary Quite Contrary 24 IV The Branding-Iron 31 V Tex Lynch 41 VI The Blood-Stained Saddle 51 VII Rustlers 60 VIII The Hoodoo Outfit 70 IX Revelations 81 X Buck Finds Out Something 91 XI Danger 106 XII Thwarted 119 XIII Counterplot 127 XIV The Lady From the Past 136 XV "Blackleg" 145 XVI The Unexpected 153 XVII The Primeval Instinct 166 XVIII A Change of Base 176 XIX The Mysterious Motor-Car 186 XX Catastrophe 197 XXI What Mary Thorne Found 208 XXII Nerve 219 XXIII Where the Wheel Tracks Led 230 XXIV The Secret of North Pasture 239 XXV The Trap 248 XXVI Sheriff Hardenberg Intervenes 256 XXVII An Hour Too Late 268 XXVIII Forebodings 276 XXIX Creeping Shadows 284 XXX Lynch Scores 291 XXXI Gone 301 XXXII Buck Rides 309 XXXIII Carried Away 319 XXXIV The Fight on the Ledge 332 XXXV The Dead Heart 339 XXXVI Two Trails Converge 345 SHOE-BAR STRATTON CHAPTER I BACK FROM THE DEAD