Tex Ritter Western #16

When a horse rustling scheme goes wrong, a wounded man named Bob Curtiss ends up at the mercy of Todd Flint, a rancher who's already betrayed his own accomplices. Tex Ritter finds Curtiss shot and clinging to life on a mountain trail, and as the Prairie Ranger works to uncover the truth behind the stolen horses, Curtiss becomes the key to exposing everyone involved—if he lives long enough to talk. With Bill Dailey demanding answers and others desperate to keep secrets buried, the race is on to reach Curtiss before the men who want him silenced do.

Tex Ritter uncovers a deliberate sabotage when a dam mysteriously cracks, but a dynamite explosion leaves him blind—forcing the prairie ranger to rely on his ears, his faithful dog Fury, and sheer determination to track down the culprits before they strike again. With his sight gone but his resolve unshaken, Tex must use his wits and his dog's loyalty to expose the conspiracy and bring the guilty to justice.

A fellow named Les stops by the Wide West Employment Agency looking for work, but his full name proves to be the punchline in this quick western humor bit. "Aptly Named!" delivers a groan-worthy joke that hinges entirely on what Les reveals about himself when pressed for his complete name.

When a carnival boss turns up murdered, Tex Ritter suspects one of the workers—but with everyone nursing a grudge and payday money missing from the safe, he needs a clever way to flush out the killer. Tex devises an audacious plan to use Madame Lagyppe, the fraudulent medium from town, to stage a séance that might just trick the guilty party into revealing themselves.

Buffalo Bull claims his enemies poisoned his morning honey, forcing him to drink it—but a chance encounter with a bear and a clever scheme involving a beehive and some bees becomes his unlikely salvation in this tall tale of self-preservation gone hilariously wrong. When the other cowboys realize they've been spun a whopper, Buffalo Bull learns that sometimes the price of a good yarn is higher than any poison.

Loonie Les returns to his old job convinced he's been rehired, but his boss delivered a deliberately contradictory message—firing him on the inside of the letter while instructing him to return in five days on the outside. This lighthearted mix-up sets the stage for a classic case of miscommunication in the Old West.

Tex Ritter uncovers a dangerous plot when a vindictive engineer, fired for reckless drinking and speeding, sabotages the railroad switch at a remote junction depot to wreck a train carrying his replacement and innocent passengers. With the dispatcher knocked unconscious and himself tied up, Tex must find a way to stop a collision that's bearing down fast before two trains meet head-on on the same track.