Tex Ritter Western #25

Whiz Banks thinks he's got the perfect excuse when his boss catches him sleeping on the job, but his tall tale about straining his eyes looking through a screen door doesn't quite land the way he hoped. A quick lesson in what passes for wit in the Old West.

Tex Ritter faces off against a newcomer named Pete in a series of frontier contests—wrestling, pistol shooting, and a proposed canoe race—but when Pete recklessly takes a young woman named Sally out onto dangerous rapids, Tex must abandon the games entirely to attempt a daring rescue. With his horse White Flash and quick thinking, Tex races against time to save them from going over Thunder Rock Falls, proving that true skill means knowing when competition matters less than lending a hand.

Young Falcon proves Little Star's innocence of stealing fur pelts, but the tribe's Chief demands he find the real thief before the moon is full. Using a clever trap to draw out the guilty one, Young Falcon sets a nighttime ambush—only to discover his quarry is equally cunning, and a fierce struggle in the forest ensues. With the thief finally captured and brought to justice, Young Falcon finds himself offered a place in the tribe as a cherished friend and brother.

Wagonwheels gives a tenderfoot his first dose of Western weather wisdom—with a tall tale that lands somewhere between a groan and a laugh.

When Sam Hollister, a former Kansas train robber with a reputation for lightning-fast draws, is shot dead in the Cattleman's Hotel, Ranger Tex Ritter finds himself juggling two very different stories about what happened that night. The croupier Pat Morgan points the finger at young Jim Brant, who had threatened to keep Hollister away from his sister Claire, but Tex's investigation reveals holes in Morgan's account that are hard to ignore. With conflicting evidence and motives all around, the ranger must ride out to the Brant ranch and separate fact from accusation before justice goes down the wrong barrel.

In this half-page humor story, a young boy with a hay wagon seeks shelter and a meal at a kindly stranger's house—but when asked about his father's whereabouts, the boy reveals a surprise that upends the whole situation. A lighthearted frontier tale about misunderstandings and unexpected discoveries.