Hopalong Cassidy #34

Hill Billy's got a new mule—a mean-looking critter that the postman immediately warns could be trouble. But when Hill Billy's asked if the beast ever kicks him, he's got a wry answer that reveals the real danger in owning such an ornery animal. A quick, humorous tale about life with an unpredictable four-legged friend.

When a saddle maker's new competitor opens shop in Twin River, the rivalry turns deadly—a Mayor is nearly killed in a riding accident, and Hopalong Cassidy must uncover whether the saddles were deliberately sabotaged or if darker forces are at work. As the sheriff investigates, he discovers that someone has gone to murderous lengths to hide the truth, leading to a confrontation where the real villain's own treachery becomes his undoing.

Whitey Whiskers brags to Danny that he's the most talented man in town and lands a job as a performer at Cactus Joe's Carnival—but his confident boasts about bareback riding, trapeze work, and animal taming hilariously backfire when the carnival manager puts his "talents" to an unexpected use. Watch as this fast-talking drifter discovers that talk and actual skill are two very different things in this 1949 western comedy.

When Mesquite's legendary appetite for Widow Jones's pies lands him at her house, a pair of outlaws on the run from a payroll robbery decide to hide out—and tie up the landlady in the cellar. As Deputy Hopalong Cassidy closes in, the crooks attempt an ingenious scheme involving knockout drops and misdirection to slip away with their stolen loot. But Mesquite's relentless hunger may just be the unexpected element that tips the scales toward justice.

When a local hunting guide vanishes without a trace, Sheriff Hopalong Cassidy must venture back into the treacherous mountain territory he'd recently explored—only to discover that Pierre Gaulois's disappearance is tangled up with a dangerous criminal scheme. With an escaped prisoner, stolen securities hidden in the perilous Boiling Well, and lives hanging in the balance, Hopalong races against time to uncover the truth and rescue the guide. A tale of grit, cunning, and frontier justice set in some of the West's most unforgiving terrain.