The Dead-Line

The Dead-Line – Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens are accidentally caught in the middle when a range war develops between cattlemen and shepherds.

The Dead-Line (1924) – “Hashknife” Hartley found it dividing cattle and sheep. Ambushes, murders, and plenty of skullduggery abound when the shepherds want to cross the pass to graze their sheep closer to the Lo Lo River. Jack Hartwell, son of the biggest cattle baron around, is right in the middle of it. Why? Because he’s married to the daughter of the biggest sheep baron around and they live in a tiny shack in the middle of the no-man’s-land. And someone is a spy for the other side.

W. C. Tuttle (1883-1969) was born in Montana. He wrote more than 1000 magazine stories and dozens of novels, almost all of which were westerns. He wrote at least five or six series, but his best known one featured Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens, two wandering cowboys who served as unofficial detectives solving crimes on the ranches where they worked. Tuttle was also a screenwriter, and he wrote for 52 films between 1915 and 1945.

The Dead-Line is a novel of 42 chapters and contains 4 illustrations.