Lash LaRue Western #36

When Hammerhead and his pal Jim stop for a meal during their travels, a hungry mishap near a cliff's edge forces Jim to reconsider his dining habits—and his safety instincts. This one-page western gag proves that in the frontier, staying fed and staying alive require equal caution.

When a circus rolls into town, Lash LaRue goes undercover as a daring performer to investigate a suspicious death—and uncover a murderer hiding in plain sight under the big top. With mystery, murder, and mayhem swirling beneath the canvas, the roving marshal must rely on his legendary bullwhip and quick wits to catch a killer who'll stop at nothing to keep his crimes hidden. Death Under the Big Top proves that sometimes the most dangerous act in the circus isn't the one the crowds come to see.

When Bill Hunter arrives at his uncle's ranch, he finds Kit recovering from a supposed accident—but something doesn't add up. A week of suspicious silence, a doctor who never appears, and hired hands who keep Bill away from the sickroom have the young man convinced there's foul play afoot, so he seeks out his uncle's old friend, the roving marshal Lash LaRue. What starts as a simple welfare check uncovers a ruthless scheme that puts both Bill and Kit in deadly danger.

Dusty swaps tall tales with a visiting tenderfoot about hunting prowess, each one trying to top the other with increasingly ridiculous stories—from searching for game tickets to a bear chase that somehow spans six months. It's a good-natured battle of wits and exaggeration that'll have you grinning at the absurd logic these two bring to their frontier banter.

Lash LaRue springs into action when a band of peaceful Ojavan Indians rides toward town in an unexplained frenzy, and he discovers they've been poisoned with loco weed by a scheming impostor posing as a wandering medicine man. The culprit's real goal: to provoke the Indians into breaking the terms of a will that left a valuable ranch to Fleet Deer and his brothers, so a greedy relative can claim the inheritance instead. With the band now sick and locked up, Lash must uncover the truth before the will's conditions are violated and justice is lost.