Lash LaRue Western #20

The Masked Highwayman stages a daring robbery on the Silvertown stagecoach, using a clever disguise and a plan to hide both the loot and his identity beneath the coach seat. As the stagecoach driver is knocked out and left behind, the passengers are forced to comply—only to later accuse the coach owner, E. Herrick, of being complicit when the robbery is reported. With time running out and the stakes rising, Lash LaRue must unravel a mystery that leads him to question who—or what—might be behind the masked bandit’s actions.

In a humorous western tale, Wagonwheels challenges Hyar to answer a riddle about the petrified forest, claiming he’s got a question Hyar can’t solve. When Wagonwheels asks what causes trees to become petrified, Hyar confidently replies it’s the wind—only to be met with stunned silence and laughter.

Dusty tries to keep his horses happy after his stable burns down by pretending they’re still in a stable, even as his cabin proves less than ideal. When Bart shows up offering a job on his ranch, Dusty’s sleepless night of bizarre dreams and odd behavior leads to a series of escalating misunderstandings.

In the dim glow of the Dulcet Music Hall, roving marshal Lash Larue investigates a murder after the lights go out during Kitty Kildaire’s performance of "Darkness on the Prairie." When Melody Brown is found dead backstage, Lash and Squinty uncover a web of deception involving the hall’s staff, with suspicion falling on the manager, Weston, and the mysterious disappearance of a stolen thousand dollars hidden in a violin.

Uncle Molasses Mouth waits anxiously to pick up his nephew Chick from school, only to be surprised by Chick’s unexpected lesson on the Phoenicians—leaving Molasses Mouth scrambling to pretend he knows what they were, and hilariously claiming they invented the Phoenician (Venetian) blinds.