Hopalong Cassidy #50

Hill Billy gets a visit from Mrs. Dowell, the head of the adult education committee, who insists he needs schooling despite his confident claim to have enough learning already. When she challenges him to prove his knowledge by naming the letter that comes after "A," his answer—"all of them!"—leaves her speechless in this clever one-pager that delivers a punchline worthy of the hillbilly character's backwoods logic.

A locksmith's murder sets Hopalong Cassidy on the trail of a blackmail scheme targeting Judge Peters just weeks before the mayoral election—and a mysterious key becomes the linchpin to unraveling the whole crooked plan. When Morey Frost's nightly visits to the judge's home threaten to derail an honest man's campaign, Hopalong must piece together the connection between an old crime and present-day extortion. It's a case where one small piece of evidence could expose a killer and save a town's future.

When ventriloquist the Great Gabbo and his dummy Ferdinand come to town, Hopalong and Mesquite invite them to a celebration dinner at the widow Jones' house—but a theft at the opera house and a mysterious disappearance of the widow's inheritance set Hopalong on the trail of a cunning thief. As suspicion falls on everyone from the performer himself to Mesquite, Hopalong must uncover who's really behind the scheme before another crime strikes.

Pistol Packing Pattie decides to give a cocky gunslinger named Flash Farrel some straight talk when he complains that nobody in town likes him. She points out his glaring problem—an ego so massive it's blinding him to how insufferable he's become. A lighthearted western tale about a man who badly needs a reality check.

When Big Bow and Little Arrow lose their jobs after a quarrel over chores, they resolve to cooperate and find new work together—but old habits die hard as they bicker their way through town looking for employment. Their fighting spirit keeps getting in the way of their job-hunting, testing whether they can actually stick to their agreement that this will be their last fight.

When gold shipment bandits sabotage Hopalong Cassidy's guns by emptying the chambers, the clever sheriff finds himself outgunned and cornered—but a man with a reputation like Hopalong's doesn't stay down for long. Using nothing but his wits and a blanket, he sets a trap for the overconfident outlaws who thought they'd neutralized Twin River's ace lawman. This 1950 frontier tale proves that in a showdown, brains can outmatch bullets.