Lash LaRue Western #9

Lash LaRue stumbles onto a crooked gambling operation run by a card shark named Swifty Sawyer, who's been fleecing a local rancher with marked cards. When Lash hatches a plan to catch Sawyer red-handed—disguising himself for a high-stakes game while the rancher fetches the sheriff—a wrinkle in the scheme forces the marshal to rely on his trademark bullwhip to finish the job his own way.

When the sheriff appoints Dusty as his deputy and puts him through an emergency drill, the young man's creative interpretations of proper law enforcement procedure—and his wildly unconventional answers to every practical question—test the sheriff's patience in increasingly absurd ways. This 1950 humor-western showcases Dusty's unique brand of logic as he insists he's perfectly suited for the job, despite all evidence to the contrary. A lighthearted romp through frontier incompetence and rapid-fire wisecracks that proves sometimes the best deputy work happens when nobody's watching.

A fellow named Wagonwheels stirs up some mischief with a group of unsuspecting companions, building suspense around a supposed tragedy involving the President. The punchline lands when Wagonwheels reveals the real reason behind the mysterious problem—a quick-witted joke that flips the setup on its head in true western humor style.

Molasses Mouth settles in for some serious contemplation out on the plains, and when a curious friend asks what's occupying his mind, the answer is pure frontier logic—he's grateful he wasn't born somewhere far away because he wouldn't understand the language there. It's a quick, silly bit of backwards reasoning that captures the humor of this 1950 western romp.

Lash LaRue picks up a weathered stranger on the trail outside town and offers him a ride—only to learn from the sheriff that the old man is Cyrus Platt, who swore revenge years ago after losing his ranch in a scheme by two local men, Gilbey and Chase. When Platt returns seeking justice, Lash must uncover the real truth behind the theft that drove him away before an old score settles in blood. With tangled notes, missing money, and bodies starting to pile up, Lash rides to get ahead of a tragedy that's already in motion.

A slick lawyer named Gabb takes on a client accused of gold theft by the local sheriff—but when the lawyer's own courtroom cleverness gets his guilty client off the hook, he discovers that defending a crook comes with an ironic price. This two-page western comedy plays with the notion that justice and the law aren't always the same thing, delivering a wry lesson wrapped in frontier humor.

When thieves Sutter and Brush steal the solid gold statue of General Roofe from Sunset Patch, they believe the tornado-ravaged town is the perfect cover for their crime—until a boy's innocent observation tips off Lash LaRue to the heist. Racing against time to recover the statue before the culprits escape, Lash tracks the criminals to a remote ranch where the golden prize lies hidden in a well, guarded by two ruthless hired hands with secrets of their own.

A motorcyclist gets pulled over by a highway patrolman for a missing tail light, but his real worry is far worse—his trailer has vanished! This quick Western humor bit turns a routine traffic stop into an unexpected predicament in "Travelling Travelair."