Bill Boyd Western #12

When Bill Boyd agrees to fill in as deputy of Tornado Gulch for just one day, a stolen diamond ring and a suspicious thief named Sharkey turn his simple favor into a tangled case of deception. As clues point in different directions and innocent cowboys get caught in the crossfire, the two-gun wanderer must untangle the truth before his temporary badge expires. It's a day where anything can happen—and in Tornado Gulch, it does.

When Sagebrush finds himself flat broke, he spots his pal Tad Benton and figures a quick loan is the answer—but Tad's got other ideas, claiming he's economizing and can't help out. Sagebrush sets out to convince his friend otherwise in this playful 1951 tale of frontier finances and friendly persuasion.

Bill Boyd stumbles upon a murdered fighting cock on the road and teams up with the local sheriff to investigate an illegal cock-fighting operation thriving in the hills outside town. When Boyd witnesses a ruthless gang using poisoned spurs to cheat at their matches, he finds himself caught between stopping the criminals and protecting a man who knows their secrets but fears the law as much as the killers.

When two armed robbers force Crowbait to hide them in his wagon and later coerce him into retrieving stolen loot from a well, the clever peddler must outwit his captors using nothing but his wits and whatever's at hand. Written and illustrated by Bill Boyd's creative team, "The Prairie Hostage" is a scrappy six-page tale where a resourceful underdog discovers that sometimes the best escape plan comes from thinking faster than your enemies.

When young Oswald won't stop hollering through a screen door, his uncle Brainy Buster decides it's time for a lesson in why all that yelling isn't good for the boy's voice. It's a lighthearted frontier moment that proves even the simplest domestic squabble can lead to some good-natured wisdom in this 1951 western humor tale.

Wilbur the waiter gets an earful when a customer orders tea for dessert—and discovers a hilariously literal reason why tea bags aren't his preferred brew. This quick-witted bit from "Tea Hee" plays on a simple misunderstanding with a punchline that lands with genuine charm.

Windy spins an outrageous yarn about an extraordinarily powerful fish he supposedly caught in the Gulf—one so strong it could haul an anchor back onto his boat, so brilliant he taught it to talk, and so devoted it kept returning to him no matter what. As his tall tale grows wilder and more absurd with each detail, the skeptical fellas listening grow increasingly exasperated, until Windy gets exactly what he was after all along.

When wagon train after wagon train vanishes in the wilderness, Bill Boyd rides hard to uncover who's behind the massacres—and quickly discovers the Crowfeet tribe is being framed for crimes they didn't commit. Racing against a lynch mob and his own suspicions, Boyd must protect innocent lives while tracking down the real culprits before another settlement falls victim to the slaughter.