Western Crime Busters #8

Wilma West and her trusted friend Sonora Sam discover a horrifying truth when they investigate cattle rustling on their spread—the stolen livestock are being butchered and sold to market by Barney Shane and his gang. Captured and imprisoned, the two must rely on an unexpected ally from Sam's past to escape and get word to the sheriff about the rustlers' operation at Elbow Bend.

Deputy Don invites Kate to a school benefit dance, but duty calls him away when a holdup is reported in Cactus Corners—leaving her to face trouble of her own. When three rough strangers arrive at the dance and turn the event into a robbery, Kate flees to alert the sheriff, only to run into the thieves on the road, who kidnap her into the hills. Trapped in their hideout but quick-thinking, Kate sets a brush fire to create chaos and escape, and Don arrives just in time to pick off the gang as they're silhouetted against the flames.

Six-gun Smith, a drifting cowhand, rides into the Tumble T Ranch seeking shelter and finds himself framed for a bank robbery when his distinctive star-faced stallion is stolen and used by the real culprits—the Sampson family, who've long plagued the spread. Arrested and thrown in jail, Smith must devise a clever trap to expose the true thieves and clear his name, with unlikely help from the ranch owner's daughter. It's a clever game of misdirection on the frontier where a stranger's bad timing nearly costs him everything.