Rocky Lane Western #20

In "Jumping Beans," a young man named Sagebrush visits Rancher Hollis, who accidentally cooks Mexican jumping beans into his soup. When Sagebrush learns that Hollis is still bouncing around on the chandelier from eating the soup, he’s stunned by the bizarre and energetic aftermath.

Rocky Lane is tasked with mentoring a group of newly appointed U.S. Marshals, but he grows suspicious when one of them, Buck Timson, arrives late and acts out of character. As Rocky investigates further, he notices discrepancies in Timson’s signature and follows him into the hills, uncovering a dangerous deception: the man claiming to be Timson is an imposter, holding the real marshal captive and planning to seize control of Dexter County.

When a traveling rodeo's crooked operators steal Black Jack, Rocky Lane follows a trail of broken branches through the woods to track the horse, only to discover the rustlers have disguised him with white markings to hide his identity. As Rocky races to stop them before their next rodeo, he must outwit the thieves while staying one step ahead of their plan to profit from a horse no one can ride.

Dee Dickens is utterly miserable on her new ranch, complaining about the extreme heat that forces her to feed her hens cracked ice to prevent hard-boiled eggs, and the nightly cyclones that have blown the barn away—leaving her too anxious to go looking for it. When she finally heads into town to see the dentist, her nervousness only grows, especially when the dentist reveals he’s a former horse thief and delivers a sharp-witted jab about her high-strung nature.

Undercover Marshal Rocky Lane stumbles into a shootout after being mistaken for a lawman, only to team up with Sheriff Carter to track down outlaw Red Baylor. As Rocky scours the hills, he keeps finding scattered wagon wheels—four here, four more there—leading him to suspect a strange pattern behind the missing wagons. When he finally uncovers the truth, he realizes the wheels aren’t lost at all, but part of a clever escape plan involving makeshift boats.