Buster Crabbe #4 (1952)

In the dusty frontier town of Lamos, Buster Crabbe investigates the sudden disappearances of Mexican miners after a suspiciously wealthy outlaw named Lon Murdo begins hiring laborers with promises of high pay. When Buster and his sidekick Whiskers uncover a mine where workers are enslaved and mistreated, they must devise a daring plan to free the prisoners before they’re worked to death.

Buster Crabbe finds himself entangled in a web of secrecy when Esther Brooks, a mysterious land buyer, offers him a fortune for a small parcel of land tied to his past as an honorary chief. As he refuses to sell, her increasingly aggressive tactics—ranging from threats to ambushes—reveal a far more dangerous game beneath the surface, one that involves hidden forces, a guarded waterway, and a conspiracy that even his old friend Thunder Cloud seems unwilling to explain.

When a weary cowboy named Whiskers insists on a haircut right after settling in, the barber’s scissors accidentally take more than just hair—shaving off Whiskers’ prized whiskers. Enraged, Whiskers storms the sheriff, declaring himself a wanted man, and flees into the wilderness, only to eventually return when he learns the barber was merely knocked out.

Buster Crabbe, posing as a schoolteacher in a frontier town, tries to keep order in the classroom while secretly investigating a string of mysterious robberies. When a suspicious newcomer challenges his authority, Buster must use his sharp wit and quick draw to maintain control—both in the classroom and on the trail of the elusive raiders.