Straight Arrow #46

A mysterious gunslinger with a scarred face arrives in town just as cattle rustling reaches a fever pitch, and only Straight Arrow suspects there's more to the stranger than meets the eye. When a lynch mob confronts the man called Smith and innocent Comanches face blame for the raids, Straight Arrow must race against time to uncover the truth before war erupts between the tribe and the settlers. In this tale by Fred Meagher, deception runs deeper than anyone in town imagined.

Masked thieves are stealing mesquite corral fences across the valley—a bizarre crime that puzzles everyone until Straight Arrow discovers the posts bear a hidden map to a fortune in stolen goods. As the great Comanche warchief traces the trail of fence thefts to uncover the mystery, he finds himself pitted against an escaped convict desperate to reclaim his buried treasure.

Red Hawk discovers an ingenious weapon when a vine loop snags his ankle during a hunt—a rope with a sliding knot that functions as a lasso, revolutionizing how the Cheyenne can use rope in battle. After weeks of practice and playful (if annoying) pranks on his tribe, Red Hawk is banished for his antics, but the secret of his "rope hand" reaches the Crow raiders, who plot to steal it for themselves. When the Crows launch a surprise attack on the Cheyenne village while the hunters are away, Red Hawk must find a way to defend his people with nothing but the weapon they once mocked.

When a mysterious figure stumbles out of a raging desert sandstorm, Straight Arrow rescues him—only to hear a troubling tale of a treasure hunt gone wrong and a missing prospector. As Collins recounts how he and an old man named Driscoll were ambushed by what he believed were hostile Indians, Straight Arrow sets out to investigate, but discovers evidence that suggests something far more sinister is at work. The great Comanche warrior must uncover who's really behind the attacks before more innocent lives are lost.