Black Rider #21 — Nick Peron

Aug 21

Aug 21 Black Rider #21

Black Rider

Bobby Lathrop witnesses Trigger Tracy and his gang shoot two of his father's best ranch hands and make off with some cattle. Rushing home Bobby runs into his friend Dr. Matthew Masters and tells him what happened. Masters in turn changes into the Black Rider and goes to investigate. Finding the dead men, the Black Rider then follows the back trail of Trigger Tracy and his gang, leading him to a nearby saloon. There, the Black Rider guns down most of his gang and takes Trigger into custody. Nearby one of Trigger's men watches and comes up with a plan to save his boss from the hangman's rope.

The next day when Trigger's trail is well underway, Bobby Lathrop is called to the stand but he is not present in the court house. Suddenly Bobby's father Jim bursts into the courthouse and informs the Black Rider that Bobby has gone missing. The Black Rider in turn tries to appeal to the judge to put the trial on hold while he goes looking for him. However the judge denies the request and Trigger and his men are set free. They gloat at the Black Rider before leaving, but the hero suspects that they have something to do with Bobby's disappearance and he follows after them.

The Black Rider tracks them to a run down old shack, but when he bursts in he is knocked out from behind. When he comes around Trigger and his men force the Black Rider to try and shoot a small rock off Bobby's head without hitting him, telling the Rider they will let Bobby go if he complies. The Black Rider succeeds in the challenge thanks to his superior shooting skills. However, when the Black Rider orders Trigger to let Bobby go, instead the outlaw has them reverse positions and orders Bobby to shoot a rock off the top of the Black Rider's head.

Instead of taking an impossible shot at his hero, Bobby instead turn and shoots one of the outlaws. This causes enough distraction for the Black Rider to pull his guns and mow down Trigger and his entire gang, saving Bobby from danger.

Recurring Characters

Black Rider
Jim Lathrop
Bobby Lathrop
Satan

Black Rider

The Black Rider manages to hunt down Luke Gann and Hunk Dawson to a cabin during a rainstorm. The two men have escaped the law on 12 different occasions and the hero is determined to bring them in. However a freak stroke of luck helps the outlaws escape another time: One of the lanterns suddenly falls to the ground distracting the Black Rider enough for them to flee into the storm.

The Black Rider follows after them and tracks them to Devil's Pass where they abandoned their horses and began climbing. The two outlaws hit some bad luck when a mountain lion begins stalking them killing both outlaws at once. When the Black Rider comes across their bodies he does not immediately know what attacked and killed his targets and decides to investigate. Eventually realizing that the mountain lion is stalking him as well, the Black Rider finds himself trapped on a ledge with the big cat waiting above him ready to attack.

Taking salt from his pouch, the Black Rider puts it in his mouth with a gulp of canteen water. When he climbs up to the waiting predator he spits the salt water in its eye blinding it long enough for the Black Rider to shoot the hunter dead. With his job done, the Black Rider rides back home just as the storm begins to clear.

Recurring Characters

Black Rider
Satan

Two-Gun Kid

The Two-Gun Kid is visiting his friend Johnny Savage and his wife. Johnny is entering into the local rodeo which is offering a large cash reward for the winner. Suspecting that something is wrong, the Kid asks Maw Savage what is going on and she informs them that Boss Cagle had bought the mortgage to their ranch the Lazy S and has cancelled any extensions to pay and has demanded the money by the following day or he will foreclose on them. Without the money to pay off Cagle, Johnny entered into the rodeo in the hopes of winning the money he needs to pay off his property.

However, Boss Cagle and his men are a crooked bunch and one of his hired guns shoots Johnny, wounding him bad enough that he cannot participate in the rodeo. With his friends in dire straits, the Two-Gun Kid then decides to take Johnny's place in the rodeo. He tells this to Boss Cagle, who has his men try to stop him from signing up, but the Kid gives them a wicked beating.

When this fails, Cagle has the Kid assigned to the wildest horse for the bronco competition. However when it looks like the Two-Gun Kid is going to win, Cagle has his men rob the box office instead and make off with the award money. The Two-Gun Kid goes after them and guns down Cagle and his men. From Cagle's dying hand rolls red stained gold covered in clay. Two-Gun realizes that Cagle was after the Lazy S because it had gold on the property. Maw Savage thanks the Two-Gun Kid for helping save her ranch.

Recurring Characters

Two-Gun Kid

Black Rider

Tensions are high in the town of Leadville after Shag Enoch and Jess Cantrell were locked up in the local jail. As Dr. Matthew Masters plays chess with one of Jim Lathrop, the two outlaws manage to kill the sheriff and break out of jail and blow it up.

hearing the explosion Jim and Matthew rush outside and watch as the outlaws ride away. Jim shoots at them, but Masters cannot bring himself to fire on the men due to his medical vow to never harm. Leaving shortly thereafter, Masters changes into the Black Rider and follows the outlaws tail but loses it at a nearby river and has to give up.

Not far away, Shag and Jess have camped out for the night, reunited with their gang and they have begun plotting to get bloody revenge against the people of Leadville for locking them up. Over the next few days the Black Rider tries to pick up the trail on Enoch and Cantrell by confronting the various members of their gang at their usual haunts. It leads to a lot of gun fights, dead outlaws, but no answers to the location to the gangs leaders. Meanwhile, Shag has come up with the ideal way to get revenge against Leadville.

Three days later, the Black Rider goes to the Leadville general store to buy some more ammunition and learns that a government agent apparently came in and replaced the owners entire stock with a fresh supply. This strikes the Black Rider as strange since the government has previously been stingy with gun powder rations, but buys a box of ammo. Inspecting the ammunition, the Black Rider realizes that they all duds and suspects that the outlaw gang is planning an attack on the town now that the citizens of Leadville are left without any ammunition to defend themselves.

The Black Rider rushes back into the general store and buys all of the store owners black powder and charges and then organizes the locals to set up a barricade around town and prepare for an attack. Although they are out of good bullets the people comply and keep faith in the Black Rider's plans.

When the attack comes, the Black Rider suddenly arrives with freshly made bullets made out of the black powder he bought earlier, and they all reload their guns and mow down the unsuspecting gang of outlaws, saving the town.