Ringo Kid #20
The Last Challenge!
The Ringo Kid stops an attempted robbery of the Cattleman's Bank owned by Chet Guthrie. However when the sheriff arrives, the Kid has to defend himself from being implicated as a crime and is locked up as a material witness in insure that he does not flee. Ringo is partnered in a cell with Johnny Tumbleweed a reformed outlaw who tells him that Chet Guthrie was the reason why he was locked up in jail as well. Johnny explains that he struck it rich five years ago but after he cashed his findings the bank was robbed, but Johnny had cashed out his account before the robbery but Guthrie made it look like Johnny was the one responsible forcing him on the run from the law and living the life of an outlaw.
Soon the sheriff returns to the jail and informs the Kid that town council decided to vote to imprison him since he was in town that was labelled off limits to him. However the Kid insists that he will be leaving town. That night, Ringo's companion Dull Knife comes and breaks both Ringo and Johnny out of jail and they escape. When the sheriff learns and is about to go after them, Guthrie storms into his office and confesses that he was behind the robbery and demands that the sheriff let his men free.
Suspecting that Johnny and Ringo are going after Johnny's hidden fortune, Guthrie and his men follow after them. However they are tricked into going to Hot Spring Flats and led to believe that the loot is hidden under a bolder. When they try to remove it they are blasted by the scorching hot water of a geyser and are taken prisoner by the Kid and Johnny and turned over to the law.
Recurring Characters
Ringo Kid
Dull Knife
Arab
The Ghost of Sam McGee!
In Gila City, Spotting a stage coach that is out of control, the Ringo Kid rushes after it. But as he grabs hold of the reins an eerie voice orders him to let go of the reins or die and the Kid lets go an narrowly avoids getting trampled. Meeting with the sheriff who was also after the coach he tells his experience and is told that Jake Grimley, the man who was scheduled to ride the stage, said the same thing when the horses suddenly started to run wild. The sheriff goes off after the stage because it's carrying ten million in cash. The Kid decides to pay a visit Grimley to learn more about his encounter. He learns that the horses on that coach acted strange ever since their original rider Sam McGee went missing during a ride to Pine Pitch when the stage was trampled. Ringo then pays a visit to the telegraph office and asks the attendant to let him know if the coach makes it to Pine Pitch okay.
Meanwhile on the route to Pine Pitch a gang of outlaws spot the wagon and assume that the stage is driver-less and try to attack it but they are spooked off by the voice of the phantom that apparently rides it. Later the Ringo Kid is told that the coach made it to Pine Pitch, but when it is loaded up with gold it raced off on its own again. The Ringo Kid rides off to intercept it and comes across it as a gang of outlaws try to rob it. Once again the voice of the phantom speaks up frightening them and allowing the Kid to swoop in and disarm them. To his surprise, Sam McGee comes out of the back of the stage. He reveals that this is the gang who had originally robbed his stage on the day he disappeared. Their raid cost him his arm and his job and so he vowed to someday capture them. Having caught the outlaws, the Ringo Kid ties them up and sends Sam back to town to turn them over to the authorities.
Recurring Characters
Ringo Kid
Arab
Make Every Bullet Count!
In the town of Powder Keg the Ringo Kid is heading back to the stable to collect his horse when suddenly someone starts shooting at him. Whirling around he is surprised to find that it is Buzz Drury who was testing to see if Ringo is still as fast as he remembers. The Kid asks him what brings him to town and he learns how someone has staked a claim on the ranch owned by Buzz's father, a man claiming to be his half-brother showed up after his father died and willed the ranch to him. When the Kid learns that the man claiming to be Buzz's half brother is a man named Cadman Drury, the Kid recalls the name, telling Buzz that Cadman died in a gunfight in Zaragosa three years ago.
The pair ride out to Zaragosa to investigate this and find that someone knocked down Cadman's gravestone destroying the inscription. They check the town records and find none regarding Cadman's death and burial in town. However both men notice that a page was torn out of the record books. Before they can do anything about it the clerk pulls a gun on them. However the two men are fast on their feet and whirl around shooting the gun out of the clerk's hand. They then rush off to the ranch to confront the man posing as Buzz's half-brother.
At the ranch an outlaw named Yarbo -- who was posing as Cadman -- and his men are rounding up the livestock on the ranch. However before they can flee, both Ringo and Buzz arrive with guns blazing and prevent them from escaping, rounding them up for the law.
Recurring Characters
Ringo Kid
Arab
The Pirates of the Plains!
The Ringo Kid, his father Cory Rand, and his Comanche friend Dull Knife ride into the town of Stampede. They are spotted by men under the employ of a gambler named Pecos and they go to warn their boss. When the Ringo Kid and his companions arrive outside the gambling hall, Ringo tells them to wait outside to keep people from interfering with his confrontation. Ringo then confronts Pecos and orders him to to return the property he stole from the local Pawnee tribe. When Pecos tries to draw his guns, the Kid shoots the guns out of his hands, and then forces him to return the stolen money.
The Kid then leaves and he and his companions run into the sheriff and they explain what happened and he agrees to let them cash the money at the local bank in escrow for the Pawnee people. Furious at this defeat, Pecos decides to get revenge against the Ringo Kid.
The following day, Ringo, Cory and Dull Knife try to load up supplies and learn that Pecos and his men have bought up all the gunnysacks and oil supplies in the area. They soon realize that Pecos and his men are attempting to start a prairie fire to destroy the Pawnee people's hunting ground.
At the suggestion of Dull Knife, they get a herd of buffalo to stampede through a river and then to trample the grass that the fire is approaching. The flattened and dampened grass prevents the fire from spreading further, and Pecos and his men are captured by the Pawnee who then turn him and his men over to the Ringo Kid to give over to the law.
Recurring Characters
Ringo Kid
Cory Rand
Dull Knife
Arab
