
\[Frontispiece: The resemblance... transformed itself slowly into the breath-cutting reality, and I was staring up... into the face of Cummings.\]
BY - FRANCIS LYNDE
AUTHOR OF THE TAMING OF RED BUTTE WESTERN, THE CITY OF NUMBERED DAYS, ETC.
FRONTISPIECE BY ARTHUR E. BECHER
BRANDED
I. The Heating of the Iron
II. The Searing Touch
III. In the Name of the Law
IV. Scars
V. The Downward Path
A small Western town is rocked by a quiet scandal that threatens to upend every respectable family. When a young bank employee is called to the hill‑top mansion of the charismatic Agatha Geddis, she entangles him in a desperate bargain: conceal her father’s risky speculation in exchange for a promise that could secure his future. He must decide whether to become the iron‑hearted shield she wants—or to let himself melt under the weight of loyalty, love, and looming ruin.
The story unfolds amid dusty streets, a weary police chief, and the whispered currents of ambition that flow through a community built on trust and hard cash. As the protagonist wrestles with his sense of duty and the alluring pull of Agatha’s beauty, the tension builds toward a pivotal night when the truth could either save or shatter the lives of everyone he knows.
Language
en
Duration
~7 hours (418K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Al Haines
Release date
2006-10-05
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1856–1930
Known for brisk adventure stories set among railroads, mines, and mountain towns of the American West, this early 20th-century novelist brought engineering know-how and frontier tension into popular fiction. Several of his books were successful enough to be adapted for silent film.
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