Black Rider #15
The Poisoned Bottles!
Frontier doctor Matthew Masters is one his on his way for a mercy call when he spots smoke off in the distance. Not too far away are a band of Comanches who have just slaughtered an entire ranch and set the house ablaze. They have gone on this act of destruction because they are drunk on liquor that has been sold to them by two white men. Their leader is Sly Wolf who is descended from a great team of chiefs. He has been buying liquor from the men to keep his braves drunk so that they side with him on his desire to go to war against the white man. Sly Wolf makes a deal with the men who are providing them their liquor, and the men boast about how much money they are making off the deal.
Meanwhile, Matthew Masters comes across the flaming ruins of the ranch and learns that everyone is dead. Among the wreckage he finds broken whiskey bottles and dead braves. Masters takes the dead Native into town to perform an autopsy and learns that he was drunk when he was killed. The sheriff takes a sample of the broken bottle to see if he can track down the bottle maker and learn who has been providing the Natives with whiskey. Alone in the doctors office, Masters decides to find out in his own way and changes into the Black Rider. The Black Rider rides out to the Comanche camp and requests an audience with chief Running Deer. At the center of the camp the two men are in the process of selling Sly Wolf barrels of whiskey despite the unknown to the chief. When they are informed that the Black Rider is coming. Quickly, the men hide with their poison wares.
When the Black Rider arrives, Sly Wolf tries to shoot him, but Running Deer orders him to stand down. The Rider pleads to them not to buy whiskey and tells them that a war would benefit nobody. As the outlaws prepare to shoot the Black Rider in the back, he tells Running Deer to inspect the shipments to confirm that it is whiskey that is meant to inflame his warriors. Before he can, the outlaws come out of hiding and shoot Running Deer dead. Sly Wolf then accuses the Black Rider of being in league with the outlaws. While the Black Rider retreats from the attacking Comanches, the two outlaws are slaughtered by the angered warriors.
This all plays into Sly Wolf's plan and he encourages his warriors to drink the whiskey and go to war against the white men. From hiding, the Black Rider picks herbs from the bush and places them into the whiskey. The combination causes the warriors to become sick. Blaming Sly Wolf, the Comanches realize their error in judgement and slay him. The next day the Black Rider leads the law into the village to take the whiskey away.
Recurring Characters
Black Rider
Comanches
Satan
The Silent Scream!
At an all night poker game Buckskin Baldy Morgan quits the game after losing $2000 to the other gamblers and calls it a night. Morgan vows to get even against the men who swindled him when he notices a man turning in his winnings by using sign language and learns that the man is mute man named Talkin' Sam. Seeing opportunity, Morgan follows after Sam to the nearby livery stable and murders him and steals his money. When Sam's body is found, doctor Matthew Masters is call in to examine the body. When they find the tassels of a buckskin coat on Sam's body, Buckskin is implicated in the murder.
Masters changes into the Black Rider and begins to hunt down Morgan. Spotting the Black Rider on his trail, Buckskin lights a grass fire to try and keep the hero at bay. Hiding out in a forest, Buckskin spots a man panning for gold and asks him if he can hide out. As he tries to lead his horse it begins to protest and Morgan suddenly trips backward and lands into a quicksand patch. Despite his cries for help nobody comes to his rescue and he eventually sinks to the bottom and drowns.
When the Black Rider arrives he finds the panhandler and searches around, learning that Buckskin drowned in the quicksand. Black Rider finds this an ironic end to Buckskin Morgan as the panhandler was deaf and Morgan's screams were as unheard as those of Talkin' Sam.
Recurring Characters
Black Rider
Satan
The Sign of the Wolf!
The Black Rider comes across two Native American brothers, Orooka and Nadi-Ka who are fighting over a wolf pelt and are about to kill each other when he steps in. The argument, he learns has stemmed from accusations of theft over their mutual hunting. The Black Rider keeps the two brothers apart until their chief and some warriors come and split them up and bring them back to the village.
The Black Rider offers to stay the night to try and talk sense into the two hunters the next day when their tempers have cooled down. However, later that night, the Black Rider and chief are informed that Orooka and Nadi-Ka have escaped and are not hunting each other in the forest. As the Black Rider rides after them, the two braves fight in the forest until a fateful bolt of lightning strikes a tree pinning them both. The two are then helpless as a pack of hungry wolves approach them. However, before the wolves can attack the Black Rider arrives and shoots them dead. Freeing the two brothers they realize how foolish they have been and make peace.
Recurring Characters
Black Rider
Satan
Returns from the Dead!
The Black Rider has returned to his hometown of Leadville to a commotion. Packrat Pete tells the masked hero that Tim Varmus has returned to his parents after having been kidnapped for ransom nine years ago. The Varmus family paid the $30,000 ransom but the boy was never returned. The boy was properly identified by a butterfly shaped birthmark on his back. In celebrating their son's return the wealthy Varmus family is holding an open house for the town to celebrate. The Black Rider however find the boy's miraculous return suspicious and decides to see him for himself.
Along the way, Packrat tells the Black Rider that the boy was found swimming by some travelling cowpokes who returned him and were rewarded with jobs on the ranch as well. When the Black Rider arrives he recognizes the men as Spur and his gang of outlaws. When the Black Rider points this out, Brady Varmus tells the Rider that Spur and his men came clean with their criminal past and expressed a desire to go straight. The Black Rider presses the issue and things get heated when the Rider demands to see the birthmark on the boy's back. When they refuse, Spur shoves Packrat down and a fight breaks out. However Varmus breaks it up and tells the Black Rider and Packrat to leave. The Black Rider warns Varmus that employing Spur will end with a knife in his back.
The Black Rider leaves and changes into his alter-ego of doctor Matthew Masters and goes back to the Varmus ranch. There he spies Tim pouring himself a glass of whiskey. Finding this behavior odd for a boy, Masters quickly slips an ipecac into it making him instantly sick. Masters is called into the ranch to treat the boy, and he tries again to get the boy to take off his shirt to see if he has the birthmark on him. Spur and his men get wise to this ploy and another fight breaks out, this time with Masters being literally thrown out of the house.
Having had enough, the Masters changes into the Black Rider again and comes in demanding to see the boy and insure that he is not an impostor. Spur and his men try to gun the hero down but the Black Rider is faster at the draw and fatally shoots them all. The Rider then strips the shirt off Tim's back and is shocked when it turns out that he really is Tim Varmus. Tim then confesses that he was raised by Spur for the years he was kidnapped and that Spur had told him his parents sent him away and didn't love him and that they plotted this whole caper to kill them off so Tim could inherit their fortune. Spur turns out to be alive, and in his wounded states confesses that he manipulated the boy in order to steal the Varmus fortune. With the truth told, Tim realizes the errors of his way and Spur is taken into custody.
The next day Spur is hanged for his crimes and a butterfly is pinned to his back as a symbol pointing out his crime.
Recurring Characters
Black Rider
Packrat Pete
Satan
