Wild Western #9 — Nick Peron

Aug 13

Aug 13 Wild Western #9

Trapped by the Hands of the Hypnotist!

This photo could be on the cover of erotic literature and still not look out of place.

Matthew Masters has come up with a plan to help drought conditions in the town of Leadville by blasting a nearby gulch to allow water to flow into the area from a nearby river. The blast goes off without a hitch and everyone celebrates. To celebrate, the people of Leadville put on a frontier day fair in town. The announcement bring in people from all around. One such man is Lincoln Quantrell, a hypnotist of great power. Along the way he stops before a rancher who is stuck watching his cattle and hypnotizes him to test his skill. Confident that he is unbeatable, the Hypnotist rides into Leadville the first stop in his bid to try and take over the United States. However his assistant rides his horse out of the back of their wagon spooking the cattle and causing them to run off the nearby cliff. Furious, the Quantrell tells his assistant to get the horse back in the wagon before someone sees it and ruins his plans, whipping the assistant the whole way.

Riding into town, the Hypnotist spots Marie Lathrop and her brother Bobby preparing Bobby's horse for the upcoming race. He is instantly smitten by the girl and decides to use his hypnosis to make her his queen when he takes over the country. Lincoln then enters his horse into the race, placing bets that his will win. Seeing the tired horse pulling Quantrell's wagon, they all scoff at this and bet against him, unaware that his assistant will be riding the fresh horse he has hidden inside his wagon.

While people watch in astonishment as the Hypnotists horse wins the race, he goes into the local bank and uses his hypnotic powers to enthral the workers and force them to hand over the money. With the race over, everyone begins calling the Hypnotist's assistant a cheat. Before they can get to the bottom of things the bank robbery is discovered and everyone begins looking for Quantrell. Matthew Masters slips away and changes into the Black Rider to try and track down the thief as well.

The Black Rider tracks down the Hypnotist to the nearby livery stable where he is trying to stab his assistant to death as his usefulness has worn out. The Black Rider tries to stop him and his hypnotized and made the Hypnotist's slave. Just then, Marie also enters the stable and she too is put under Lincoln's hypnotic control. Having the pair escort him out of town, Quintrell then orders the Black Rider to shoot himself in the head. However the Rider's will power proves to be too strong and he breaks free from the Hypnotist's control. Before he can stop Quantrell he orders Marie to ride her horse off a cliff. The Black Rider races after her while the Hypnotist shoots at him. The Black Rider manages to save Marie just as her horse rides off the cliff. Before the Hypnotist can shoot them, he is attacked by his assistant, who is still alive and tracked down his master for revenge. Their fight takes them off the edge of the same cliff causing both men to fall to their deaths, ending the threat of the Hypnotist.

Recurring Characters

Black Rider
Marie Lathrop
Jim Lathrop
Bobby Lathrop
Satan

The End of the Trail!

While camping out for the night Kid Colt is caught by ruthless US Marshall Frosty Forbes who intends on taking in Kid Colt for the $2000 reward on his head. Kid Colt tries to escape but when Forbes threatens to shoot his horse Steel, the Kid surrenders. Handcuffed to Foster, Kid Colt is forced to ride on a river barge across a raging river. Despite the boat operators warning that the river is to wild, they try to cross anyway and the boat eventually capsizes. Hourse later, Kid Colt and Steel wash ashore. While Kid Colt is black out, Forbes had drowned in the water. They are found by Mr. Greville whose wagon happens to be passing by and they revive Kid Colt. The Kid lies, telling them that he is Frosty Forbes and that he had captured Kid Colt and convinces Greville to remove the help remove the handcuffs.

As it turns out Greville hired Forbes for a job and asks "Frosty" to accompany him into town. Kid Colt, complies to see what is going on. When they arrive in the town of Trail's End, Kid Colt finds that the locals are all angry at Greville for a bad land deal and want their money back. Kid Colt keeps the people at bay, shooting the guns out of their hands when they turn violent. However one of the men is shot dead, and Kid Colt is accused of killing him until Greville's assistant Big John comes out and claims responsibility. Kid Colt tells Big John off for killing the man, telling him that bloodshed was unnecessary. This explodes into a fight between the two men. Kid Colt gains the upper hand and the fight is stopped when Greville orders both men to stand down and get inside.

Big John goes in first and Kid Colt takes the time to apologize to the widow of the dead man and learns more about the rotten deal that Greville, selling then bad land that they cannot use. When Kid Colt goes into the office to question him about it he finds Greville and Big John cleaning out the safe and preparing to leave town. Greville reveals that he purposely sold the bad land and is aware that "Forbes" is really Kid Colt, explaining that's why he hired him on. When the Kid refuses to help he is knocked out by Big John. The pair try to flee on horse, but Kid Colt revives and guns both men down. When the people come around to the back of the building, Kid Colt hands over their money and rides off.

Recurring Characters

Kid Colt
Steel

The Incident at Choctaw Creek!

Tex Morgan and Lobo are riding into Choctaw Creek to the sound of gunshots and ride in to investigate. In town they find the Sheriff Frank Gosden fighting along against outlaws that are in the employ of Tord Stevens. With Tex and Lobo's help he manages to drive off the outlaws who retreat. Gosden explains that Tord Stevens and his gang were run out of Montana and have holed up in Choctaw Creek, living out of the local hotel, and intend to turn the town into an outlaws hideout. Tex and Lobo agree to help the sheriff clear Tord and his men out of town.

Inside the hotel, Tord's men return and tell him what happened. Tord tells his men to stand down and wait for Tex and Lobo to come to them, figuring them to be nothing more than gun fighters that might want to join their crew. When Tex and Lobo enter the saloon, they push their way past Tord's men into his office. Tord offers them a chance to join his crew but they refuse. Tord orders his men to kill the two, but Tex and Lobo are faster draws and gun down his men in the office. Tex warns Tord to stay out of trouble, admitting that he'd be saving himself a lot of trouble by gunning him down then and there. As they leave another gun man tries to shoot them from one of the upper levels of the saloon, but Tex manages to shoot him dead.

Returning to the saloon to meet with the sheriff they learn from the owner that the local doctor sent him home to bed. Suddenly a child enters the saloon with the note, supposedly from the sheriff, telling Tex to meet him at the doctors house. Realizing the bartender lied to them and that he is in league with Tord's men, Tex knocks him out. Aware that they are walking into a trap, Tex and Lobo decide to go to Dr. Spencer's office anyway. As expected Tord's men are there to ambush them, but Tex and Lobo manage to shoot their way into the office and gun down Tord, freeing the sheriff. In the aftermath, the sheriff throws a party to celebrate Tex and Lobo, and as he is proposing a toast to the two heroes he is surprised to find that they have already left town.

Recurring Characters

Tex Morgan
Lobo
Lightning
Cloud

The Rabbit That Struck Back!

The Two-Gun Kid is riding into a town when he is suddenly shot at. He ducks out of range and slips into the house where the shots came from only to find that the shooters have disappeared. On his way to visit his cousin Jeff, Two-Gun stops into the general store and mistaken for his cousin and gets directions. Along the way, the Kid realizes that the shooters might have mistook him for Jeff as well.

Arriving at Jeff's cabin, Two-Gun is surprised to see how closely his meek cousin resembles him. Jeff explains that the owner of the Circle-K Ranch has been buying out the properties around his, and those who were not willing to sell were pressured into selling. Jeff is the last property owner and he refuses to sell. Thanks to the trouble he has sent his son Tommy away to his mother-in-laws until the danger is over. Just then a rock with a note is thrown through the window, and Two-Gun misses shooting the thrower. The note warns Jeff that his wife and child are hostage and that he must sell if he wants them back safe.

Having had enough, Two-Gun Kid decides to ride out and question the ower of the Circle-K and get Jeff's family back. However the owner explains that he isn't using pressure tactics to get people to sell, that his deals are all made through his lawyer Nick Wells, who takes a commission from all the sales. Two-Gun realizes that Wells is responsible and heads back to tell Jeff what is happening unaware that one of Wells' men has been listening in on the conversation. Jeff wishes that he could be more of a fighting man and save his family, when suddenly he spots foot prints and realizes Two-Gun is riding into a trap and goes out to help his cousin.

When Two-Gun arrives at Nick Wells cabin, he is ready for the trap and begins fighting Wells and his men. The battle turns in his favour when Jeff also joins the fight. When Wells tries to shoot Jeff, Two-Gun kills him. With his family free, Jeff's wife and kid have a hard time telling Two-Gun and Jeff apart. The Kid pays his leave and on the way out crosses paths with the sheriff who also mistakes him for Jeff when asking about the shooting. Two-Gun confuses the sheriff further by telling him that Jeff Peters will answer all his questions and rides off.

Recurring Characters

Two-Gun Kid
Cyclone

Doom in the Desert!

A trio of men named Bronc, Stenton, and rob a train car and evade capture from the law. They then hide the money and split the treasure map into three pieces so that they all need to go together in order to recover the gold. One of the men is reluctant to do all this, however he is reminded how he needs the money to send his daughter to school. Once everything is sorted out they agree to reunite six months later to recover their stolen loot once the heat has died down.

However, one of the three thieves is greedy and seeks all the parts of the map for himself. First he knocks out his partner Bronc and then sets his sights for Stendton to get the last part of the map. Stenton is shot for his part of the map. Thankfully the shots are heard by Tex Taylor and his partner Alkelai Ike. They find the wounded man and take him back to his farmhouse where his daughter treats his wounds. There, he tells Tex and Ike what happened. He explains while their leader was busy robbing him, Bronc had manages to sneak up on him and get revenge by taking all three parts of the map back. Hearing someone coming, the pair decided to split up, with their leader vowing to get revenge against Bronc. Before Stendton can tell Tex the identity of their leader he dies from his wounds.

Without her father, Stendon’s daughter fears that she will lose the family ranch if they don’t find the money, figuring she could use $5000 from to pay off the debts and give the rest to the railroad company. Tex and Ike agree to help her find it and later in their travels they discover that the sheriff of nearby town. While trying to recover the stolen loot, the sheriff takes Shenton’s daughter hostage, but Tex guns him down ending his threat. With the stolen loot found, the woman agrees to take what she needs and send the rest back to the railroad.