Texas Kid #5
Paid in Full!
After wiping out some outlaws terrorizing Caliber City, the Texas Kid heads back to Hidden Valley to change back into his alter ego Lance Temple. Along the way he comes across a man who has been shot and left for dead. Taking the unconscious man with him to Hidden Valley, Lance quickly changes out of his costume, but the man comes around and catches Lance in the act. The man introduces himself as Sam Bender a member of Coley Welch's gang. He explains that he was gunned down by a deputy who recognizes him when he was sizing up the express office for their next robbery.
Stuck with the fact that this man has discovered his double identity, Lance cannot bring himself to murder the man to keep his identity secret. Bender suddenly passes out from his wounds. Lance decides to take Sam back to his fathers ranch. There he turns the wounded man over to his father. While Zane Temple treats Sam's wounds, Lance quietly returns his fathers guns.
After days of treatment, Sam comes out of his coma while Lance is feeding him and is surprised that the hero nursed him back to health despite the fact that he knows his secret identity. Sam then surprises Lance by telling him that Coley Welch and his men are planning to settle in the area and are planning to eliminate the Texas Kid. Bender explains that Coley has made a Texas Kid costume and plans on robbing the express office in order to frame the hero. Lance rides off and changes into the Texas Kid to deal with this plot.
The Kid rides into Welch's camp and his mistake the Texas Kid for their boss and are gunned down as a result. When the rest of the gang flees, Texas Kid goes off to town to stop Coley, but changes into Lance Temple in the process. Meanwhile, Coley has successfully robbed the express office in his Texas Kid disguise. As he flees he runs into Lance Temple, knocking the young man off his horse and knocking him out. Coley then dresses Temple in his Texas Kid disguise.
Ironically, Lance is captured by the law and unmasked and sentenced to hang. A young boy rushes to the Temple ranch to tell Zane temple what has happened. Hearing this, Sam also decides to do something to help the Texas Kid. Sam takes a horse and rides off to Coley's camp where he catches his former leader and both men fatally shoot each other. Both men are seriously wounded, and Sam takes Coley prisoner. Changing into a Texas Kid costume, Sam arrives with Coley as his prisoner informing the locals what really happened, clearing Lance of the crime he has been accused with. After the "Texas Kid" rides off and Lance follows after him. He finds Sam in Hidden Valley. Dying from his wounds, Sam is happy that he was able to do some right before he dies. In order to honor Sam's sacrifice, Lance buries him in Hidden Valley.
Recurring Characters
Texas Kid
Zane Temple
Thunder
Mexican Man-Trap!
Learning from Red Hawk that their friend Emilio has been wounded, Lance Temple rides out to Juarez, Mexico to help his friend out. Along the way he spots vultures circling in the sky. Going to investigate what they are flying over he finds a party of Mexicans who have been driven from their homes by a local tyrant named Don Carlos.
Continuing on his way, Lance finds the hut where Emilio us hiding out and finds that he has been healing well. Emilio explains that Don Carlos has forged land claims and has been forcing the locals off their lands. Running for governor, Don is doing this in order to drive out the people who would vote against him. Lance decides to get involved and changes into the Texas Kid. The Texas Kid then forces himself onto Don Carlos' mansion and attacks him and his conspirators as they discuss their plan. However, Texas Kid is knocked out. The hero is then tied up and tossed into a bull pen to be trampled to death. However the Texas Kid whistles for his horse. Thunder rushes into the pen and keeps the bulls at bay long enough for the Kid to break free of his bonds and escapes the pen.
When Carlos' men surround the Texas Kid they are stopped from killing the hero when Emilio arrives with a band of resistance fighters. As the resistance battles with Don's minions, the would-be governor is gunned down by the Texas Kid, falling into his own bull pen. With Don Carlos dead, the Texas Kid and Emilio burn down his mansion along with his all of his forged deeds.
Recurring Characters
Texas Kid
Emilio Diaz
Hooded Terror!
When drought forces a settlement of people to relocate they begin settling in the open land around Caliber City as nesters. These newcomers prompt local ranchers to meet. While some of their number of the ranchers believe that the nesters should be driven out, both Zane Temple and the sheriff agree that the nesters have a right to settle there and that there is plenty of land to go around. When it's suggested that locals will take the law in their own hand, big time rancher Clay Battick cautions the others against vigilante justice. However as the ranchers leave and talk spreads town, talk of forming a vigilante group continues despite warnings that they might have to deal with the Texas Kid.
Soon a group of hooded men calling themselves the Vigilantes appear and attack one of the local ranches slaughtering the family living there and lighting the ranch on fire. A young boy survives the massacre and flees to the Temple ranch and tells Lance and Zane Temple what happened. Soon some of the Vigilantes storm the house and attack. When Zane protests against the invasion, they easily overpower the blind man and whip him to teach him a lesson and leave. Lance and the boy take his father inside and Lance leaves the boy to care for him.
Lance then goes to Hidden Valley and changes into the Texas Kid, vowing to get revenge against the Vigilantes. The Texas Kid tracks them down to another nester ranch that is being attacked. Before he can act, the Kid is surrounded by members of the Vigilantes who take him prisoner. He is brought before their leader, but before they can deal with the masked hero his friends Emilio and Red Hawk arrive with guns blazing. As they gun down the masked me, their leader escapes and the gun fight soon ends. Unmasking the dead the Texas Kid and his friends learn that the Vigilantes are local ranchers and saloon toughs. They find one of the men alive, but before he can tell the Kid who their leader is he is shot dead from afar.
Suspecting that the leader might be a rancher named Kyle, who was vehemently against the nesters; the Texas Kid, Emilio and Red Hawk ride to the Kyle ranch. They arrive just as Kyle is gunned down by the leader of the Vigilantes. The three heroes get the drop on the last of the Vigilantes, and the Texas Kid unmasks the leader, revealing him to be Clay Battick. Surrendering Battick confesses that he was greedy and wanted to seize the land. After the Texas Kid turns the Vigilantes over to the law he changes back into his alter ego of Lance Temple and returns home with Emilio and Red Hawk. There Red Hawk uses Cheyenne medicine to treat Zane's injuries.
Recurring Characters
Texas Kid
Zane Temple
Emilio Diaz
Red Hawk
Thunder
