Wild Western #8
When the Bell Tolled Murder!
With winter coming, the Two-Gun Kid decides to ride south of the Rio Grande for warmer climates. He eventually ends up in the town of Mojave where he learns that there is a local law in place that demands that everyone visiting turn over their guns to the sheriff. Two-Gun Kid complies with the law although he does not fully agree with it. Not long after entering town, he hears cries for help from a young woman and a mute boy who are being bulled by a man. The Kid comes to their aid and sends the man packing. The girl introduces herself as Sally Blaine and her friend as Dilly Scoggings. She explains that the man Two-Gun just fought off was Brad Begley, who owns most of the town and has a heavy influence on the law and that Begley usually gets the sheriff to arrest those who cross him and force them to work hard labour in his quarry.
Suddenly, the sheriff comes and arrests Two-Gun for "assaulting" Brad Begley. Sally and Dilly try to plead Two-Gun's case, but the sheriff won't listen and the Kid finds himself forced into the quarry to work. Upon his arrival, he spots an old man being abused by one of the guards. Two-Gun steps in and stops him before he can kill the old man. The Kid takes the wounded man back to the bunk house where the workers are forced to sleep. He learns that the old man is Sally's father Pop. Two-Gun then begins working with the other prisoners to come up with a way to free themselves. The next day while on water duty. the Kid gets his chance when he attacks his guard and beats him into unconsciousness with a bucket. Two-Gun then takes the man's pistol and waits for another guard to come by and disarms him as well.
Two-Gun locates Pop and gives him the spare gun and the both begin shooting down the other guards so that the other prisoners can also claim guns for themselves. Leading a revolt, Two-Gun Kid has the other prisoner subdue the guards and then they destroy the dam that keeps the quarry free of water. Escaping the prison camp, Two-Gun and the others take refuge in town where Pop is reunited with his daughter. Two-Gun then sends Dilly off to alert the other townsfolk while they deal with Brad Begley and his posse. They attack the posse while they are gathering up to recaptured the escaped prisoner and a gun battle begins. Just when the battle appears to be lost, Dilly rings the town bell bringing the locals who help in the fight.
Pop manages to get the drop on Brad Begley and is about to shoot him dead when Two-Gun Kid stop him, telling Pop that they have to try him under law in order to get any justice out of the whole ordeal otherwise they are no better than Begley. In the aftermath of the battle, everyone is happily surprised when Dilly realizes that he ringing bell helped restore his ability to speak and the people soon elect Pop as the new mayor. With the town back in the control of the people, Two-Gun Kid rides off once again.
Recurring Characters
Two-Gun Kid
Cyclone
The Phantom Strikes!
The Black Rider guns down the last surviving members of the Burroughs Gang and returns to Leadville, changing back into his alter ego, doctor Matthew Masters. He is greeted by Bobby Lathrop, the only person who knows his double identity. Matthew tells Bobby that with the last of the lawless eliminated in Leadville he has decided to retire his identity of the Black Rider, and since he no longer has to pretend to be meek and helpless any more in order to protect his double-identity he is going to start standing up for himself in the hopes of winning the heart of Marie Lathrop.
Matthew and Bobby then go to Josh Mudy's store to buy some medicine and are curious to find that a number of the local ranchers are meeting with him. They learn that Buck Barstow has bought up all the mortgages of area ranches and is ordering the ranchers to pay up or be evicted, so Josh has arranged to get money for the ranchers to help them pay their bills with money that he invested back east. When Matthew and Bobby leave the shop they run into Marie who is with Buck Barstow. When Matt tries to talk to Buck, his foreman gets in the way. Matthew then puts on his new attitude and demands to speak with Buck directly, stirring up Marie's attention. However the foreman tries to start a fight with Masters, who surprises everyone by standing up to the bully. However, this quickly ends when everyone is alerted that an outlaw calling himself the Phantom had robbed a stage coach. This causes Matthew to realize that the Black Rider is still needed and quickly reverts to his meek personality and is punched out, quashing any interest Marie suddenly had in him. Just then, Josh Mundy arrives with the money that he cashed in and turns it over to Barstow, who tells Mundy that the next payment is due in 10 days.
Masters changes into the Black Rider and goes out to look for the Phantom and finds cattle rustlers working for Buck Barstow instead. The Black Rider then begins to fight them off when he gets assistance from an unlikely friend: The Phantom. Realizing that Barstow is trying to force the ranchers from their land by any means possible, the Black Rider rushes back to Leadville to confront him. There he catches Barstow's foreman trying to pressure Marie into marrying him so that her father's ranch would be spared when the Black Rider arrives. He knocks out the foreman with a single punch. When Barstow and his men get the drop on the Black Rider, the Phantom reappears and lends some covering fire. Although Buck and his men are killed, the Phantom also takes a bullet as well. The Black Rider then helps the Phantom escape the scene, sneaking into Matthew Master's office.
There the Black Rider examines the wound and informs the Phantom it's fatal. He unmasks the Phantom revealing him to be Josh Mundy. Mundy explains that he robbed the coaches in an attempt to help out the ranchers, explaining that he too used to be a rancher and had his property stolen from Barstow in the past. As his dying wish, Mundy asks to know who the Black Rider really is. The Rider agrees to his final wishes and reveals that he is really Matthew Masters. He is caught by Barstow's foreman who tries to kill Matthew, but Masters is a faster draw and kills him. When the authorities arrive at the scene, Mundy is dead and Matthew had arranged the scene to make it look like the foreman was really the Phantom and that Josh died a hero stopping him.
Recurring Characters
Black Rider
Marie Lathrop
Bobby Lathrop
Satan
His Brother's Keeper!
Kid Colt is fleeing from the law and manages to escape them in the Moshulu Range. After getting away he decides to go into the town of Clear Creek to lay low for a while.
Meanwhile, in Clear Creek, Chet Laribee loses the last of his brother Larry's money gambling against local gamblers Stacey and Morgan. As Stacey and Morgan are closing up for the day a masked man barges in and then robs them of their winnings. The thief escapes but not before the two robbed men can recognize Chet Laribee's spurs on the robbers boots. Shortly thereafter, Chet races home and realizes that there is a posse led by the sheriff after him. He soon arrives on his brothers ranch where he lives and asks Larry and his girl Judy to help hide him from the law, explaining to them that he is being accused of a robbery he did not commit, guilting Larry into helping based on a promise he made to their mother before she died.
However it is too late to hide Chet because the law arrives and they accuse him of the theft. When Larry asks how Stacey and Morgan recognized the thief, the sheriff informs him that it was by his spurs. Larry then shows that he is wearing the exact same spurs and suddenly pulls a gun on them and flees the area with all his horse stock, leaving the authorities to think that Larry was behind the theft and they chase after him. After weeks of fleeing the law, Larry falls on bad luck when his horse panics as the sight of a rattlesnake, and bucks him off. Injured and unable to walk, Larry sets up camp and waits for his eventual capture. Instead of capture he comes across Kid Colt who offers to him foot and help. When riders are heard approaching, Larry cannot move anywhere because of his leg and asks the Kid to ride into town and sell his horses and give the money to Judy and Chet. The Kid agrees and rides off with the horses in order to help Larry out. Kid Colt is spotted by the posse after Larry, but their horses are too tired to catch up, but capture Laribee instead.
On the other side of town, Kid Colt sells the horses for a hefty profit and rides back to Clear Creek. There he finds wanted posters for Larry that advise that he escaped from jail. When he gets closer to town he comes across a cattle pen where a dead body has been found trampled to death. Chet and Judy are on the scene and Chet identifies the body as that belonging to Larry. When Morgan starts trying to talk to Judy, Chet gets defensive and warns the gambler to stay away from her. A potential fight is broken up by the sheriff who informs Chet that with his brother dead, he has full ownership of Larry's ranch. Kid Colt is surprised when he's pulled aside by Larry who is alive and well. Larry asks him to bring Chet aside so he can talk to him.
Kid Colt does so and the two brothers are reunited. Chet explains that he claimed the body was Larry's so that the law wouldn't chase him any more and suggests that Larry flee town and tells them to go to the ranch and wait for supplies. Along the way, Larry cannot understand who the dead body belongs to and mentions how for unknown reasons Morgan is against him marrying Judy. Kid Colt decides to go back into town and talk to Morgan to find out what is going on. When he arrives he finds out that the sheriff has been tipped off that Larry Laribee is still alive and that he is forming a posse to capture him. With the posse riding out, Kid Colt continues on his way to talk to Morgan. However, fate steps in the way when frightened horses begin running through the street and threaten to run Judy down. Both Ace Morgan and Kid Colt try to rescue her. Kid Colt succeeds and Morgan is trampled.
Dying, Morgan explains to Kid Colt that Judy is his daughter, and that Chet was the one whole stole the money. When Stacey tried to blackmail Chet, Chet had him killed because he wanted to claim his brother's ranch and Judy as well. Kid Colt then rushes off to the Laribee Ranch, taking a shortcut to get there ahead of the posse. There he confronts Chet, who confesses to the whole plot and pulls a gun on them. Larry is unable to harm his brother, but Kid has no such compunctions and shoots Chet. Larry refuses any harm to come to his brother, and so Kid Colt punches him out, he then has the dying Chet write a full confession and then flees before the law arrives. When they do, they find the confession, clearing Larry's name. Eventually Larry and Judy get married.
Recurring Characters
Kid Colt
Steel
Horror of the Caves!
While riding on the range, Two-Gun Kid catches up on goings on with a newspaper and reads a story about a recent escape of a prison chain gang. Suddenly he hears a man cry out for help and is horrified to see someone toss him off a cliff. Rushing to the fallen man's aid. The old man is dying and tells Two-Gun to warn his child Gerry and to keep the kid safe from the monsters that he encountered. After the man dies, somebody starts to shoot at the Kid. He quickly disarms the shooter and is surprised to find that it is a girl, and that her name is Gerry -- the old man's daughter. She accuses him of killing her father to get at his gold mine, but Two-Gun Kid pleads his innocence explaining that he found the old man and came to his aid and offers to help her catch his real killer.
Gerry decides to go along with Two-Gun and the two begin scaling the side of the cliff where her father was thrown. When rocks begin to tumble, the pair seek refuge in a cave along the side of the cliff. Inside, they are attacked by what appears to be a caveman. However, the Kid is knocked out and Gerry is taken prisoner. Following after the caveman, the Kid finds that the end of the tunnel has been blocked with a massive bolder. Using the gunpowder from his bullets, Two-Gun blasts the rock to bits and continues along the trail to find Gerry.
Up ahead, Gerry is surprised to find that the caveman can speak perfect English. She is brought to a cabin where she is introduced to Carl Conners, the prison guard in charge of the chain gang that escaped. He explains that he has helped the prisoners escape and that they are searching for her father's gold mine to strike it rich. In order to scare people away, Conners has the escapees dressed up like cavemen. He then has Gerry tied up and they continue their search.
Meanwhile, the Two-Gun Kid gets out of the cave and climbs the rest of the way up the cliff and comes across Conners operation. Spotting the cabin, the Kid fights his way in and tries to free Gerry, but without bullets to fire out of his guns, he is quickly taken at gun point and stands down. The "caveman" who captures him then puts his rifle aside and uses the Two-Gun Kid's pistols to keep him at bay, unaware that they are not armed. When Conners returns and explains his plot to the Kid, Two-Gun then makes a dive for the rifle and claims it. He only manages to wing Connors, who makes a break for it leaving Two-Gun to gun down the escaped prisoners.
Rushing outside after Connors, one of the dying crooks alerts him to the fact that Conners is hiding out in the dynamite shack. Two-Gun then shoots at the shack, causing it to explode killing Connors in the process. The explosion also uncovers the gold, and Two-Gun turns it over to Gerry.
Recurring Characters
Two-Gun Kid
Cyclone
