Black Rider #11 (1950)

The Black Rider is on his way to US Army Fort McVey when he sees smoke on the horizon. Checking it out he finds that a camp of Apaches has been murdered and finds the remains of a spur at the scene of the crime, pointing to outlaws. Seeking to prevent a war path being called and needless bloodshed, the Black Rider rides off to Fort McVey to try and warn the commanding officer there. At the site he is shocked to see soldiers burying their dead and learns that they were killed by firing squad for disobeying even the slightest orders. Disturbed by this, the Black Rider confronts Major Tyrell and tries to warn him about the Apaches and express his concern for the way Tyrell treats his men. He is even more disturbed that Tyrell worships such conquerors as Caesar, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. When the Black Rider calls Tyrell a tyrant, he is kicked out of the fort. Riding into a nearby town, the Black Rider recognizes some of the men in the bar as the outlaws who killed the Apaches due to one of them having a broken spur. The Black Rider then easily disarms the men and forces them to go to Fort McVey to stand trial for their crimes. To his shock he learns that the outlaws are in the employ of Tyrell who then lets them go. Black Rider tries to protest and the the Major orders his men to arrest him. Black Rider gets the drop on them and instead forces them to let him go. On the way out, one of the soldiers tells the Black Rider that during the Civil War, Tyrell forced his troops against the Confederate army even though they odds were strongly against them and many died. Unable to reprimand Tyrell, the military since put him at Fort McVey to keep him out of the way. The Black Rider leaves then returns as Matthew Masters to try and solve the problem another way. Snooping around he overhears Major Tyrell talking to the leader of the outlaws and learns that he is using them to stir up the local Apaches so that he can have the victory battle that he did not achieve during the Civil War. When the crate that Masters is standing on breaks, he gives himself away and flees the scene. In order to cover his getaway, Masters changes into the Black Rider and uses Satan to jump over the walls of the forts and escape. When an advance guard is sent to face the Apache warriors, Black Rider convinces them to stop and sneak around the Apache army and take the women and children hostage. They Black Rider then convinces the other soldiers to stand down. Unwilling to accept defeat Major Tyrell charges at the Apache warriors alone and is killed in a hale of arrows. The Black Rider then explains that he has the women and children of their tribe hostage and explains the situation and convinces them to stand down and work peace instead. Returning to the Fort to capture the outlaws responsible for working up the Apaches, the Black Rider and military find that they were poisoned by the Major before he led his attack.