The Cowboy Couriers

# The Cowboy Couriers: The Rustlers of the Big Horn

This serial by Leon Lewis follows two young adventurers, Ned Wharton (20) and Bob Carpenter (19), who ride through Wyoming's Big Horn Valley pursued by hostile Native Americans. Accompanied by Demon, an exceptionally intelligent mastiff trained to respond to Bob's ventriloquism, they claim to be hunting a white antelope for a $20,000 reward offered by a zoo proprietor. They encounter Harewood, a false sheriff leading an outlaw gang, whom they skillfully manipulate with cigars and brandy while maintaining their antelope cover story via a planted newspaper squib. Later, they meet an apparently distressed woman named Mrs. Crump, a housekeeper to a missionary, whose wagon has been damaged; they assist her, though her true motives remain unclear. The narrative blends western adventure with mystery, establishing the youths as resourceful frontiersmen navigating a lawless frontier populated by both genuine dangers and deceptive encounters.