Bill Boyd Western #19

When a stranger steps in to substitute for an injured rodeo champion and generously pledges the prize money to the town, he uncovers a scheme to rig the competition—and becomes a target for the desperate men behind it. Trapped and left for dead before the big event, he must find a way back to town to expose the conspiracy and settle the score in the arena.

Brainy Buster hears what sounds like terrible cries of distress from his friend Biff and rushes to the rescue—only to discover that Biff is actually singing and asking for his opinion on launching a music career. When Brainy Buster delivers his honest assessment, the results are comedically blunt.

Windy's been visiting his cousins Sue and Hal for nearly a year—doing nothing but spinning tall tales and dodging hints to leave—so the frustrated pair cooks up a scheme to trick him into admitting he should go. When they stage a heated dinner argument and ask for his judgment, Windy's answer to their trap reveals why he's the permanent guest nobody can seem to evict.

Bill Boyd takes a job that seems straightforward until he realizes the real estate agent Ralph Horgan has mistaken him for a hired killer sent to rob the neighboring Bar Double T Ranch—part of a scheme to seize the property when its owner can't pay the mortgage. Using the green kerchief meant to identify him to Horgan's men guarding Bullet Hole Road, Boyd learns the truth from the ranch owner and decides to deliver the mortgage payment himself, setting a trap for the conspirators.

Hammerhead's got an unconventional reason for tossing salt over his shoulder—and it's got nothing to do with luck. This quick, quirky Western gag proves that sometimes the simplest superstition has the silliest explanation hiding behind it.

Bill Boyd and Midnite catch wind of a murdered man thrown from a moving train and race to intercept it at the next station, where they discover an escaped convict using forged papers to assume the dead traveler's identity. With justice closing in, the killer makes a desperate play to use Bill as a hostage—but the two-gun cavalier has other plans in store.