The trail of deception by W. C. Tuttle

"The trail of deception" by W. C. Tuttle is a Western novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Jim Bailey, a down-on-his-luck city bookkeeper who assumes the identity of “Jim Meade” to claim the Lazy H ranch in Arizona at the urging of a scheming lawyer, Ed McLean, drawing him into rustling, murder, and small-town suspicion while Mary Deal and the mysterious cowhand Skeeter Smith complicate his path. The opening of this novel shows Bailey declared dead after his roommate dies wearing Bailey’s suit and watch, prompting Bailey to take a letter meant for the roommate and travel to Pinnacle City under the alias “Jim Meade.” There he learns a new will leaves the Lazy H to a nephew named Jim Meade, not to Mary Deal who was raised by the deceased rancher; the banker is wary, the townspeople resent him, and three drunken allies of Mary bungle a prank-turned-threat. After a fatal bank shooting removes the skeptical banker, McLean installs Bailey at the ranch, where Bailey’s painful attempts to become a cowhand lead him to stumble upon covert branding; rustlers kill his horse and he barely escapes, rescued by Skeeter, who later pressures McLean and hints at knowing the real Meade. Tensions spike when Bailey punches McLean in town, and the section ends with Tellurium and Archibald plotting a holdup as masked men enter McLean’s office, tightening the knot of conspiracy and danger. ... Read more