Wild Western #17 (1951)

The Black Rider pays a visit to his rancher friend Jim Vance and notices that his ranch is doing as poorly as the others in the area. Meeting with Vance he finds the rancher bed ridden and learns that cattle is not selling so well and that he cannot work on the ranch because he sick. The Black Rider offers to help Vance with his ranch since his other family members are not physically primed enough to deal with maintaining the ranch. Going out onto the ranch land the Black Rider notices a bunch of cattle that have different brands and realizes that the property might be used as a rustlers hiding spot. He also notices that the area is overrun with wild horses of no material use that are eating all the grass and that the area could use some foal killers to wipe out the invasive species. He returns to the ranch and meets with Jim's sister and father who thank him for his help but tell him that Jim's dreams of having a successful cattle ranch are in vein. Their talk is cut short when they spot smoke off in the distance and foreign foot prints. The Black Rider follows the trail and finds some rustlers trying to re-brand a cow. When confronting the rustlers, Jim's father is shot dead and the rustlers escape. Later after the funeral for Pop Vance, Jim is told by one of the locals is a Mustanger named Bronc Laswell who is coming to town and is offering to deal with the Mustang problem and is willing to work a 50/50 deal to use Vance's property to do the job. The Black Rider cautions him into allowing this for mere pennies, but Jim is despirate for money with the mortgage coming due. The Black Rider convinces Jim to make a deal. Returning to the ranch, Black Rider cautions Jim to trust a stranger on his property who could steal his cattle, but Jim' sister insists that they at least listen to the proposition at least. The next day the Black Rider goes to the local saloon where Laswell is signing contracts with the local ranchers. The Black Rider, recognizing some of Laswell's men as the rustlers who shot Pop Vance tells the other ranchers that they are being foolish to trust Laswell. A fight breaks out, but the Black Rider wins and once more cautions the ranchers not to trust Laswell. Suspecting that Laswell must know something, the Black Rider sends a telegram off to the World Meat Packing Company asking about the price of beef. He decides to convince Jim to move his cattle to the railroad to sell. Meanwhile, the telegraph operator is shot dead when a telegram comes informing that the price of beef has gone up. When the local ranchers notice that some of their cattle have gone missing. When the locals discover the dead telegraph operator and the telegram addressed to the Black Rider, they blame the Rider and Jim for stealing their cattle. They then try to route the cattle heading for the train. The Black Rider tries to talk sense of them but Laswell tries to convince them that the Black Rider is responsible. The Black Rider points out that the cattle purchasers can verify that Jim's brands have not been altered and that Laswell hasn't killed a single Mustang. When Laswell and his men try to shoot the Black Rider, the hero guns down the outlaws. Laswell tries to escape, but the Black Rider ropes him up and turns him over to the authorities. In the aftermath, the locals learn that the Black Rider was speaking the truth and apologize for not trusting the Black Rider and destroy the rustlers brands.