Rocky Lane Western #10

Rocky Lane, posing as an undercover marshal, arrives in town just as the notorious outlaw Bad Bill Bronson is captured—only to realize the man who turned him in is suspiciously familiar. As Rocky pieces together the truth, he discovers the capture was a trap orchestrated by Bad Bill’s gang to steal the reward money, and now the real criminal is on the run, using the reward as bait.

A young man and his dog, Whitey Whiskers, stumble upon a sign offering fifty dollars for a good retriever, leading the man to convince a skeptical rancher that his dog is unmatched in skill—claiming it once retrieved a quail from a lake by bringing back a fish containing the bird, and even points to a man dreaming of quail. Though the rancher remains doubtful, he’s impressed enough to pay five dollars for the tale, and the duo celebrates their unexpected payday.

A young man named Gopher Face claims to be very sick, but insists he won’t die—prompting a friend to ask how he knows. Gopher Face reveals the doctor told him, with deadpan humor, that death is the last thing that would happen to him.

A hungry customer returns a steak so tough he claims it could sole his boots, leading to a series of escalating food-related complaints and jokes at the butcher's counter. When he demands a chicken with no bones, fat, or feathers, the butcher retorts he wants an egg — and the banter escalates into a wild exchange involving dog meat, a yard of pork, and a stuffed turkey that ends with the customer facing a punch and a bill.