Straight Arrow #26

Straight Arrow inherits a solemn duty when the dying Chief Burning Pine asks him to judge which of his three sons—the mighty Thunder Dog, the skilled hunter Wolf Paw, and the enigmatic Elkhorn—is best suited to lead the Antelope Clan of the Comanche Nation. When the brothers' ambitions turn murderous and their rivalry threatens to tear the tribe apart, Straight Arrow devises an unconventional test to reveal which son truly possesses the wisdom and character a chief must have.

When a volcano erupts near the Cheyenne village, the scheming medicine man Foxtail and the ambitious warrior Heavy Hand seize the moment to demand human sacrifice in the name of the angry god Mana Chaka—targeting Red Hawk's own mother and sister. Red Hawk returns from distant tribal lands to find his people terrorized and his family condemned to the volcano's flames, forcing him to navigate the deadly lava and rescue them before exposing the con that's been bleeding his tribe of their wealth. This tale of courage and deception plays out against one of the frontier's most fearsome natural forces.

When a gang of gold-hungry outlaws led by the ruthless Mole hole up in Echo Canyon to lay low, their hideout is discovered by Mesquite Molly and a cowpoke named Packy—and the killers take them hostage. Straight Arrow learns of the danger through a quirk of the canyon's acoustics and rides in under cover of darkness, armed with bow, arrow, and cunning, to turn the tables on the desperate men. It's a tense standoff where stealth and quick thinking prove mightier than bullets in these badlands.

When stolen items from the Broken Bow Ranch turn up at a crime scene, Steve Adams finds himself framed for murder and rustling by the townspeople of Sawtooth Junction—and facing a lynch mob determined to hang him before dawn. With the help of his friend Packy McCloud and a timely intervention from masked riders, Steve escapes the noose, but now the whole valley believes he's guilty and running with outlaws. Straight Arrow must uncover the real culprits behind the raids, starting with a crucial clue: a saddle with unusually short stirrups that points to someone unexpected.