Black Rider #14 (1951)

In a western valley of Texas, the army of Marquis de Lassus attacks a railroad crew working on a new rail line in the area. Seeing the approaching army, the rail workers put up a white flag of peace in order to discuss what the commotion is all about. The Marquis and his general Fouchet meet with the rail-men and and learn what they are doing. The Marquis is furious as they are trespassing on land he claimed to have purchased 10 years prior while the Marquis was living in exile in Portugal. Unable to believe that the Marquis purchased what is believed to be public land, the men at the railroad question his claims and are gunned down. Seeing their co-workers killed, the other rail workers raise arms and counter attack the Marqui's army. Out numbered and out gunned the Marquis men lose the battle until Fouchet manages to convince the Marquis that a strategic retreat is necessary and that they can return with cannons and foot soldiers later. As they are fleeing the battle the Black Rider happens to be passing by. Going to the rail road workers he learns of what happened and that they had captured a prisoner. The prisoner explains that the Marques came to the United states after being exiles to Portugal from Fance during the revolution. He brought with him his family, his ancestral castle, his troops and his servants and settled into the area. With a legal challenge potentially stalling the railroad for months as the case went through the courts, the Black Rider suggests that he go and talk to the Marquis and try to convince him to allow the railroad to be built through his land. The Black Rider goes along with the prisoner despite the better judgement of the men working on the rail road. When they arrive on the outskirts of the Marquis estate, they are confronted by armed guards, but the Black Rider out shoots them and they are allowed to pass. Getting an audience inside the castle, the Black Rider learns from the captain of the guard that the Marquis is insane. He also learns that his son is sick and as his wife has failed to cure the boy, he beats her. The Black Rider visits with the Marque's son and wife and determines that the boy needs immediate surgery in order to live. He swears the Marques wife to keep his secret identity in exchange for helping the boy and then goes to speak to the Marquis. The Black Rider fights his way down to the dungeon, where he stops the Marquis from torturing and killing one of his people and demands to know why he has stopped the railroad from being built. He explains that he was exiled during the revolution and came to America to continue his aristocratic lifestyle, buying land in the United States so that he it can endure. The Black Rider tells him that he cannot continue to live by the old ways and stop forward progress and that people in America live in freedom, not under the oppression of a king. When the Marques refuses to stand down, the Black Rider locks the would-be dictator in his own dungeon. With the mad Marques out of the way, the Black Rider returns his attentions to the sick boy and changes into his alter-ego Doctor Matthew Masters. While Masters performs the needed surgery on the boy, the Marques and his men escape the dungeon through a secret passage way. When they enter into the main hall of the castle the Marquis overhears his captain of the guard preparing to stage a mutiny and kills him. The Marques orders his men to attack and goes after the Black Rider, who just then finished the needed surgery and changed back into his costumed identity. When the Marquis finds that his men have turned against him, the man ruler runs into a secret room and sets off explosives he had planted in his castle. Everyone evacuates and the Marques dies as his castle is ripped apart by a massive explosion. Weeks later the Black Rider sees off the Marques widow and healed son as they leave on the newly built rail line to live a life of freedom in America.