Monte Hale Western #49
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMonte Hale investigates a series of crimes occurring near Tombstone Prison, where outlaws have been escaping and disappearing without a trace. The sheriff suspects the escaped prisoners are being impersonated by outlaws, including a criminal named Cleaver McCabe who is using the disguise to commit robberies. Monte pursues the criminals into the wilderness, where he discovers their hideout and engages in a confrontation involving a mountain fire, ultimately thwarting their scheme. The issue also features a backup story, "R.C. and Quickie," in which the characters are caught in a lightning storm while touring a ranch and must climb a tree to safety, where they discover that Royal Crown Cola provides them energy to escape their predicament.
When Monte Hale intervenes to stop what he thinks is a kidnapping, he's swept up in a scheme far larger than he imagined—a ruthless gang using stolen tally men's identification papers to pull off an audacious rustling operation across two ranches. Tied up at their hideout with the real tally men and facing certain death, Monte must find a way to escape and expose the crooks before they vanish with their stolen herds into the mountain passes.
When the Amazing Howdidee, a smooth-talking fortune teller, arrives at the Bar Nothing Ranch, foreman Gabby Hayes is suspicious—and after a heated exchange, the mystic curses Gabby's lasso in retaliation. The next morning, the lasso begins behaving impossibly, seeming to prove the curse is real, which gives Howdidee the perfect cover to win over Aunt Hester and gain access to her hidden fortune. As the con unfolds, Gabby's enchanted rope becomes the key to exposing the faker's scheme and protecting his trusting aunt.
Monte Hale delivers the ruthless Cleaver McCabe and his gang to Tombstone Prison for life sentences—but weeks later, a mysterious holdup gang that bears an eerie resemblance to McCabe begins terrorizing the region, only to vanish without a trace near the prison walls. When Monte realizes the impossibility at hand, he sets a trap to uncover how McCabe could be committing crimes while locked behind bars, leading to a confrontation that reveals the prison's most dangerous secret.
Bronko Betsy helps set the table for a dinner guest, but her innocent misinterpretation of a casual remark about Mr. Fowler leads to an embarrassing oversight that sets up a gentle punchline about table manners and assumptions.
When outlaws led by Crip Dawson ambush Cherokee Joe's winter trapping camp with plans to steal his precious fur cache, Monte Hale arrives just in time to witness the theft—and gets knocked senseless for his trouble. Now separated from his horse and racing through the wilderness, Monte must reunite with his friend and track down the gang before they disappear with the furs that Cherokee Joe needs to save his starving tribe. It's a desperate chase through treacherous forest terrain where quick thinking and a keen eye for a shortcut become their only advantages.
Old Slick rolls into town and corners a local to pump him for information about the place, only to get a wisecrack answer that turns the tables on his nosiness. It's a quick, punchy joke that captures the humor of Monte Hale Western #49's lighter side.
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Reprinted in Roy Rogers Western Classics #1 (1989)
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