2-Gun Western, November 1955

# "The Wild Time" by John Lumsden

A Western pulp story centered on eighteen-year-old Dick Foster, a restless young man drifting toward trouble after his father's death. The narrative introduces Dick's romantic involvement with Janice Wells, whose father slaps him for taking liberties with his daughter, prompting Dick's threat of murder. Parallel to Dick's arc runs the arrival of notorious gunslinger Charlie Landry, a cocky nineteen-year-old killer fleeing Rangers, who chooses to hide in the local town rather than escape to the dangerous High Plains. Dick has fallen in with the Noren brothers—cattle rustlers planning to steal Star Ranch beef—who contemplate challenging Landry themselves. As tension escalates, Dick's mother Martha worries about his involvement in these escalating conflicts, with hired hand Ed Spooner attempting to keep the boy away from town during Landry's dangerous presence.