Kid Colt Outlaw #26
Kid Colt Outlaw
Kid Colt is riding through a forest when he comes across a crying woman and goes to her aid. He learns that she is the local schoolmarm who is without a truant officer to keep her children in class. She explains that a local named Champ Gannon has convinced all the children that school is not important and has enthralled the children with his wild tales of achievements as an outlaw.
Kid Colt decides to lend the school teacher a hand in convincing the children that an education is important. Riding into town, the Kid finds the children all gathered around Champ Gannon as he is spinning another one of his tall tales. Kid Colt then challenges him to a competition to see who is the better. In a drawing competition, Kid Colt shows the kids that he is a faster draw. The group then goes to the outskirts of town where they put on a shooting competition.
The first challenge is trying to shoot a branch out from buzzards who have perched on nearby trees without hitting the birds. Kid Colt pulls off this test easily, but Gannon proves unable to hit the tree or the bird, emptying both of his six shooters. Kid Colt explains that he determined the shot by knowing the technical specifications of his guns and ammo and their range and limitations, something he learned in school.
The next test they use rifles to blast dirt into the face of a gopher. Gannon goes first and once again fails, while Kid Colt succeeds once more using his education to determine the shot. Furious at being upstaged, Champ tries to gun down Kid Colt, but the Kid easily bowls him over. This humiliating defeat not only shows the children the importance of an education, it also teaches it to Gannon who decides to go to school along with the children to learn all he can.
Recurring Characters
Kid Colt
Steel
Terror of Tarantula Flats!
A stage coach is passing through Tarantula Flats, a long canyon pass. Along the way the coach riders are shocked when a massive spider web falls in front of them, causing them to crash and the men are killed by some unseen danger.
Later, Kid Colt passes through the area and comes across the wrecked stage and looks for survivors, not finding any. The Kid' luck turns bad when a posse, having come to look for the missing coach, get the drop on him and accuse him of robbing the coach. However, Kid Colt's shooting skills prove to be the superior and he manages to disarm enough of the men to get on his horse and flee. With the posse gaining on him, Kid Colt is led to safety by a local hermit who lives in a hidden cave along the path.
Kid Colt learns from the hermit that coaches have been wrecked by some unknown force for the past few days and Kid Colt decides to do something about it. Riding into town, he ambushes the stage coach and forces the riders to get off with their merchandise and steals it. He then rides into the Tarantula Flats trail and is caught in the same web as the other coaches. He is then attacked by the man who set the trap, an outlaw named Spider Kane and his men. But Kid Colt manages to get free and climb to the top of the pass and knock the massive rope web down, wrapping up Spider Kane and his men and leaving them to be captured by the posse who realize that Kid Colt had nothing to do with the coach robberies.
Recurring Characters
Kid Colt
Steel
Vengeance Trail!
One night, young Vince Newkirk is riding through town and finds it suspicious that Gus Hyatt's general store is still open at that time of night. Going inside he is shocked to find a number of masked men have killed Gus and are robbing his store. The gang's leader easily knocks out Vince with the butt of his gun and the gang leaves some of their stolen loot in the store with Vince, framing him for the robbery. When a bunch of locals come into the store later they find Vince as he is coming around and have him arrested.
Tragically, Vince's father is the local judge and with all the evidence pointing against Vince, his father has no choice but to sentence him to hang. However, before the young Newkirk can be hung, Kid Colt arrives and shoots out the noose and helps the young man escape. Learning what happened from Vince, Kid Colt believes the boy's story and they both break into Hyatt's store that night to try and find evidence that will clear Vince's name.
They find the proof they need when they find a chip of wood off the gunbutt that struck him on the head. With this they decide to try and find the killer by matching the chunk of wood with the gun it belongs to. They go to the local saloon and force all the patrons to drop their guns, buy they do not find the gun they are looking for and flee the scene. Vince wants to go and visit his father and see how he is doing. They arrive just as a man named Pasco is trying to convince Vince's father to gather a posse to hunt down his son, but Vince's dad is not convinced that his son is guilty of the crime he has been accused of. They stop Pasco from roughing up Vince's dad. Kid Colt then mows down Pasco's men and when Pasco tries to flee out a window shoots him dead as well. In the aftermath of the gun battle, Kid Colt checks Pasco's guns and finds that the butt of one of them has been chipped, the proof they need to clear Vince's name. With the truth revealed, Vince and his father are happily reunited.
Recurring Characters
Kid Colt
Steel
