Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
FRANK STARR & CO.,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

CONTENTS

I The Strange Rider 9

II The Lottery of Death 19

III The Midnight Conflict 31

IV The Baranca Mystery 40

V The Maiden’s Peril 50

VI The Lost Trail 60

VII On Guard 70

VIII At Bay 78

IX A Strange Proposal 85

X The Clew 93

XI A Double Surprise 96

THE TEXAS HAWKS;
OR,
THE STRANGE DECOY.

CHAPTER I.
THE STRANGE RIDER.

“Bah! for my part, I believe it sheer nonsense—nothingbut a hoax.”

“So said I until lately; but now I know there is somethingin it.”

The sentences just noted were spoken in very dissimilartones: the first one careless and slightly scoffing—the secondlow and earnest. Both speakers were young and of prepossessingappearance.

The scene was an attractive one, though somewhat similarones have been described time and time again. In fact itwas the bivouac of a hunting party.

One glance would decide this. The soiled and blood-stainedgarments of the half-score figures gathered around thecheerful, crackling fire, in attitudes of careless ease, for themost part with pipe in mouth, the half-picked bones and fragmentsof meat scattered profusely here and there, telling of ahearty meal just passed by. The horses, rudely hoppled, grazingeagerly hard-by, their sides still wet with sweat; theplentiful supply of rudely-butchered meat that hung suspendedfrom the trees around, mostly of buffalo and deer, all toldplainly that this was the bivouac of hunters, resting after asuccessful day’s chase.

In conscious security they had kindled their camp-fire, andnow, without a thought of danger, were enjoying that indispensableluxury of a true plainsman—pipes and tobacco.

Though our hunters had not given the matter a thought,10the camp had been pitched in a truly lovely and picturesquespot. At this point two goodly-sized timber-isla

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