Hopalong Cassidy #51

In the quiet town of Twin River, a mysterious shooting rocks the hotel when rancher Hawks is found dead, his gun protruding from a window. Hopalong Cassidy and his sidekick Mesquite race to catch the killer, suspecting a guest in the hotel, but the suspect vanishes without a trace—leaving the pair to search every room in a desperate hunt for a man who seems to have disappeared into thin air.

Whitey Whiskers schemes to steal a peach from Daniel Boone Jr. by pretending to reveal a secret, but his wild tale about a peach pit growing into a tree on a deer back backfires when Danny eats the peach instead. Hopalong Cassidy listens as Whitey spins an absurd story to justify his plan, but the punchline comes when Danny casually hands him the pit—turning the tables on the would-be trickster.

In the wake of a deliberately derailed train, Hopalong Cassidy tracks two fugitives who’ve hidden a fortune in stolen money inside a newly purchased shirt. As the outlaws attempt to escape town using decoy dummies and stolen horses, Hopalong pieces together the clues—only to find the real danger lies not in the money, but in the fate of a missing deputy.

In a lighthearted western mishap, Mesquite buys a fur piece to replace one he lost, only to discover it’s the same one he’d just sold to Widow Jones—leading to a tangled mix-up involving a suspicious trapper, a stolen coat, and a sheriff who’s more confused than ever. When the truth finally unravels, Mesquite must track down the real culprit behind the fur theft, all while trying to avoid Widow Jones’ wrath and a fox that may or may not be the key to his redemption.

In a humorous western frontier tale, Windy boasts to Hopalong Cassidy about his legendary baseball career, claiming he once pitched for the Saddlestitch Champs and even threw a screwball over the fence—only to have the umpire returned to the game. When Hopalong challenges Windy’s knowledge with a tricky riddle about a home run with no runs scored, Windy’s over-the-top confidence is put to the test.

Hopalong Cassidy arrives at the Twin River borderland to meet Marshal Buck Travers, only to find the marshal dead with his watch still intact—inside, a photo of a man named Tyrus, the local rancher. When the evidence points to Tyrus as the rustler Notslar, Hopalong grows suspicious, especially after discovering torn pieces of a photograph that reveal the real culprit was the telegrapher, Ralston.