Sticky ropes

About this book

"Sticky ropes" by W. C. Tuttle is a Western novel written in the early 20th century. It follows newly elected sheriff “Dusty” Corbett as he vows to bring down the shadowy Sticky Rope gang, a crew that marks its crimes with syrup-smeared lariats. With his sardonic deputy Weary Willis, Dusty faces rustlers, ambushes, and saloon politics around Calumet and the Cross-Anchor ranch. Rival foreman Jack Bonn, the visiting Ramseys, and rancher’s daughter Stella Magruder complicate his hunt.

The opening of the story finds Dusty waking in a corral after being drugged and discovering his horse stolen, a sticky-rope tag left at the hitch rack. He publicly defies the gang, gets shot at that night, and then rides to the Cross-Anchor, where a fiery visit ends in a fistfight with Bonn and young Ramsey and the taming of a notorious gray outlaw horse. On his return via Bald Butte he’s ambushed; Weary’s horse is killed, and later Palo Huston—Snag Shirey’s hand—is found dying and raving about “Sticky Ropes” before an inquest rules his death an accidental fall after a nonfatal .38 wound. Dusty quietly tests Bonn’s background by wire, trades barbs with Shirey, and keeps probing. When Stella reports a large rustle under way, Dusty pursues, blunders into an ambush, is knocked out and branded with a sticky rope, and wakes to find Stella missing. He rallies help—sending Shorty to fetch Bonn and Shirey and heading to town for Weary and guns—as the opening section closes.