Dusty Corbett, a newly elected sheriff in the rough cattle country of Big Bear, Montana, wakes up in a corral after an unexpected blackout, his paint horse stolen from the hitch rack outside Sapphire Smalley's saloon. His lanky deputy, Weary Willis, informs him that a piece of syrup-smeared rope was left in place of the horse — the calling card of the Sticky Ropes, a ruthless gang of rustlers and murderers who have terrorized the region for over a year, leaving their sticky rope markers at crime scenes as both signature and warning. Rather than retreat, Dusty nails one of the ropes defiantly to the office door, publicly declaring war on the gang. That same night, a bullet comes through the office window, narrowly missing both men. Dusty borrows a horse and rides out to the Cross-Anchor ranch, owned by his former boss Scott Magruder, whose daughter Stella has always alternately teased and intrigued Dusty. At the ranch he acquires a magnificent but wild gray horse from the remuda, gets into a brawl with foreman Jack Bonn and a visiting young man named Ramsey, and later is ambushed on the Bald Butte trail on his way back to town. His borrowed horse is shot dead, but the gray carries him through the ambush at a dead run. He fires at a flash of colored cloth in the rocks. The next day, Bonn rides into Calumet with the body of Palo Huston, a rough hand from Snag Shirey's Box S ranch, claiming Huston was found wounded on the trail and accidentally fell from a horse to his death. The inquest concludes the fall killed him; the bullet wound was not fatal. Dusty keeps quiet about the ambush, noting that Huston was shot with a .38, not his own .45. Suspicious of Bonn, Dusty sends a wire to Searchlight, Wyoming, asking about Bonn's background. The reply, glowing with praise, turns out to be fabricated — Dusty realizes by checking reward notices that the local telegraph agent is in on the scheme. He also finds a weathered code book dropped during his fight at the ranch, containing cryptic references to sheep, feeders, and cattle that hint at a larger conspiracy. The situation breaks open when Stella rides into a large-scale cattle drive on the Cross-Anchor range and is shot at before escaping back to the ranch. Dusty and Stella ride out together to chase the rustlers, but Dusty is shot in the head and left for dead, bound to a tree with a sticky rope around his neck. The gang, assuming him dead, has also captured Stella, who recognized them. Dusty regains consciousness and staggers back to the ranch. That night he and Weary ride a little-known Indian trail into the high mountain country above Hardpan Creek, tracking the stolen cattle to a hidden natural cave system in the cliffs near the legendary Diaub Lake. The Indians had long avoided this area, believing it cursed by a Wind God, but the eerie moaning is simply the wind through the rock crevices — the same crevices the gang had been using to move stolen cattle invisibly through the mountains into the next county for sale. Inside the caves, Dusty finds Stella being held by the gang: Bonn, the bartender Wharton who had drugged Dusty's drinks, the elder Ramsey — whose real name is Rand — his son, and the grizzled Snag Shirey. Rand is revealed as a wealthy Wyoming sheep operator who financed the whole scheme to terrorize Big Bear cattle ranchers into selling their land cheaply so he could convert the range to sheep. The gang debates killing Stella, Dusty, and Weary to protect themselves. Dusty and Weary spy on the gang from the shadows inside the cave, learning everything. When Snag Shirey balks at murder, Rand has his son shoot him. Dusty acts quickly: he rigs a rope down the rockslide to the lake, slips back into the cave through a water-level entrance, and extracts Stella in the darkness while the gang searches for her. A series of desperate confrontations follow inside and around the cave system. Snag Shirey, left for dead, revives long enough to shoot Bonn from behind, settling his personal score before dying. Weary battles Wharton and young Rand down the ladder exit. The elder Rand goes over the rockslide edge in a struggle with Weary. The remaining captives are hog-tied. In the aftermath, the dying Shirey clears Scott Magruder's name — the gang had falsely told Stella her father was one of them to secure her cooperation. Dusty, who had believed Stella was protecting a lover among the outlaws and had nearly stood aside out of heartbreak, learns the truth. Stella, grateful and no longer able to hide her feelings, tells him he may be a terrible sheriff by his own admission, but that is hero enough for her.
By W. C. Tuttle · First published 1912 · Genre: Western, Adventure, Fiction