 with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty high old silver, the Lone Ranger. With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the masked rider of the planes led the fight for law and order in the early western United States. The stories of his strength and courage, his daring and resourcefulness have come down to us through the generations and nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver. The Lone Ranger rides again. Come on, Silver! There's danger on the trail ahead. I'll Silver! Fly! Skeleton Canyon was a grim and foreboding place. Its granite walls, broken, blasted and seen by countless centuries of wind and rain, towered high into the western sky. Its face was pitted with numerous small caves and ominous scars where leaden bullets had spent their force. In the reflected glow of a setting sun, Skeleton Canyon resembled a huge toothless mouth, gaping in the fever-fleshed face. Night came quickly on one of the upper trails, and the sudden darkness caused the Lone Ranger, Tonto and Dan Reed to rain up their horses. Oh! Oh! Make some hope! The storm blowing up. We'd better find Sheller before it breaks. Yeah. Those black clouds are almost close enough to reach out and touch. Uh, better we find Cave plenty quick. He's one right ahead of us, but we'll have to hurry. Come on, Silver, we're not far. All right, Victor. Right on into the Cave. It's a regular cloud bridge. Yes, Dan. Certain storms like this are rather common in this part of the country. Uh-huh. Have plenty of dry wood. We build fire. That's a good idea, Tonto. We'll dry out our clothes. The horse is over to that far wall, Dan, please. Sure. Come on, Silver. Cave. Very big. Long time ago, an Indian lived here. Probably one of the cliff-willer tribes. The cave's all along the canyon wall. Uh-huh. I had strapped our samurals. Yeah, they need drying out, too. Good. Won't take long. As soon as I strike this match, let this fire going. The skeleton canyon very long. Seems like we rode into it all of a sudden. No, geological formation, Dan. Evidently at one time, there was no break in the range at this point. What do you mean? Through some volcanic action, the mountain split, giving the water from the headlands a natural bend. Well, that's Border Creek, huh? Yes, but the strange part of it is how Tokoha Valley on the other side of the range was watered before Border Creek flowed through this canyon. Maybe there wasn't any valley there. The valley's much older than Skeleton Canyon. The soil proves that. Oh. Well, there must have been another creek. Evidently. Well, why do they call it Skeleton Canyon? It's a question I can't answer, Dan. Many places are named for incidents or legends that happened hundreds of years ago. The names remain long after the reasons for them are forgotten. Gee, I'm... Listen, what is it, Tokoha? We hear horse and trail. Somebody ride plenty, plenty fast. Yes, you're right. Someone heading this way. Isn't it pretty dangerous to ride that fast in a storm like this? Very dangerous, Dan, unless you know every inch of the trail. Who could it be? Wait, I don't like it. We'd better be safe and sorry. Tokoha, the fire throws too much light. Quick, put those blanket rows together. Though they were covering someone. Now, let's all get back out of the firelight. He's riding so fast. I don't see why. He shot at us. Out of this, Dan, roll the blankets. Look. Two holes. Right where a man's head would be if he were sleeping here with a fire. Well, we stay out of the light. That plenty good hunch. You consider how fast that rider went by here in a driving rainstorm. This is plenty good shooting. Gee, he doesn't even know we're here. Why would he shoot? We're going to find out. Here, Silver. Man ride, ride horse. Yes, I know it. I don't think there's a horse that can outrun the Silver. Is that a big fella? Are we going with you? I'll make better time alone. Wait for me. Come on, Silver. Yeah, very well. Get off this trail without falling into the canyon. Now, faster, Silver. There he is, right ahead of me. Come on, Silver. Coming close. Not close enough. Faster, Silver. He was here just a minute ago. Hold, Silver, hold. Find those trees, Steady Boy. That last shot hit home, Steady. My sights on the flash of your gun. All right, Ghost. You win. Why don't you finish the job? Why were you shooting at me? I was only doing what every other man up here would like to do. What did you call me just now? Ghost, ain't that what you call yourself? You've never seen me before? Why did you shoot into the cave? Cave? What are you talking about? I've been laying view for the last two hours, right here. That's true. Who was the man on the white horse that rode ahead of me just now? You're the only farm who rides a white horse in these parts, and you know it. Maybe. Come up on the trail. You're riding with me. Now, listen. I made a plane. I missed. You plugged me in the arm and got the drop. I ain't asking no favors in the likes of you. Go on. Finish what you've started. I intend to. Start walking. Yes, you are. Move. We'll ride double on my horse. All right, get off. We're going in the cave. Be big for life. Eat in silver, Dan. Sure. So this is your kid helping you? Put down on one of those blankets. Got some questions. I want straight answers. Yeah? Why should a murderer pull a cat like you? What's your name? You know it just as well as you know the name of every other sheep man here in the canyon. Just as well as we know you, ghost. In the first place, my name isn't ghost. Sure, it ain't your real name. But you're riding a white horse and wearing a mask. My aim had been better up there in the trail. You'd be worried about long. I still want to know your name. You'd better talk. My name is Huggins. Zev Huggins. You're a sheep? Yeah. Who is this person you call the ghost? As if you didn't know. Remember? I said you'd better talk. Ghost is a critter who's been running off our sheep, burning our houses, killing every rancher he catches alone. Oh, why? You ought to know that. Like it's not you're a cattle man from over in Tokoha Valley. But it won't do you any good. You can't kill all of us or burn us out. Someday a bullet ain't gonna miss like mine did tonight. So you think the cattle ranchers in Tokoha Valley have sent the ghost up here? Sure they have. Have you any fight with them? Are you using their range? No. We graze our sheep up here in the hills. There ain't a flock ever been within 20 miles of the valley. And what reason would they have for killing or burning? Cattlemen don't need no reason. They hate us just as much as we hate them. I see. You can tell them that too. Every last one of the thieves are no good killers. All right, I will. The rain stopped now, Zeb. I imagine you have a ranch somewhere near here. You can leave if you want to. What? You mean you're not going to? I'm going to try to help you in spite of yourself. Goodbye, Zeb. You're really gonna let me walk out of here? That's what I said. Well, how? That man, Betty, is scared. Yeah, but he still can't believe you let him go. Who is he? Is he the one that shot at us? No, Dan, I don't think so. Although he tried to drag Gulch me about a mile off the trail. What's that ghost he was talking about? I don't know. It must have been the ghost I was chasing, though. He was riding a white horse. Where'd he go? He practically disappeared right in front of my eyes. He is the one they call Ghost. He's well-named. Golly! You think this ghost, Cattleman, make this fellow safe? Well, that's a difficult question, Tonto. We're going to find the answer to it. Oh! And we'll camp here for the night. Now, first thing in the morning, you and Tonto ride to Toko. That's a little cattle town right in the center of the valley. Yeah. But what do we do there? Talk to the cattleman. Ask questions about the sheep raisers, Skeleton Canyon, the ghost, anything they'll talk about. What you do, Kimosabi? I'll stay here and examine this trail, Tonto. I want to know how a man and a horse can suddenly disappear into thin air. The following morning, soon after daybreak, Tonto and Dan Reed saddle their horses on the road through Skeleton Canyon toward the town of Toko on the valley. A short time later, the Lone Ranger rained silver to a halt in the trail where he'd dog Zeb Huggins bullets the night before. Oh, silver! Oh, boy, boo! This is the place where he disappeared silver. I'm sure his horse didn't fly. There must be tracks somewhere. You wait here. I'll beat through this pinion and mesquite on the side of the trail. The Lone Ranger warmed his way through a thick-tangled underbrace that was shoulder-high. The Lone came to a break in the canyon wall. It was narrow, but still large enough to admit a man or a horse. The opening was guarded by a cluster of chimney rocks almost as tall as the canyon walls themselves. Walking quickly through the cut, the masked man was amazed at the sight which met his eyes. Rearing itself majestically on a little plateau overlooking the canyon was the outer wall of a huge stone castle. Massive bastions in a lofty tower were outlined against the morning sky. He noticed, however, that the structure was worthless. Gaunt blackened roof timbers bore mute evidence of a devastating choir. Puzzled and curious, he moved toward the castle wall. I heard of castles in Spain. I never heard of one in the skeleton canyon. Reaching the wall, the Lone Ranger walked cautiously, every sense alert, where he'd already noticed that the ground moist from the recent rainfall bore fresh hoop prints. He was looking for some kind of a break in the stone wall. If a horseman had ridden this far, he must have gone further. There it is, the doorway. An iron door standing wide open. They must be expecting me. To be the seller, and maybe a dungeon if this was really a castle. Certainly deserted. My friend a ghost on a white horse came this way. Not here now. The boats are closer than they were last night. The accurate smell of powder smoke filled the large stone room as the Lone Ranger was instinctively ducked to avoid flying lead. He could see ugly spurts of flame leap from the showers, but he couldn't make out the figure of the man behind him. As he reached for his own guns, the room echoed again with a wild and insane laugh. There must be another door on the other side of the room. Another room. If he's not here, I'll be closed it behind my back. This is one time in my life I've walked into a trap with my eyes wide open. The curtain falls on the first act of our Lone Ranger story. Before the next exciting scenes, just a pause for just a few moments. Now to continue our story. Tonto and Dan Reed had arrived in Toko where they stopped at one of the town's many cafes. There, Tonto. That man sitting at the table. He looks like a cattle rancher. Come on, we'll talk to him. Howdy. Hello there, son. Do I know you? I don't think so, sir. I've never been in this town before. My name's Dan Reed. This is my friend, Tonto. That's what I like to hear. My name's Nash. Sam Nash. I'm glad to know you, Mr. Nash. You, uh, gen strangers in town? Well, I guess you'd call us that. We just rode in from the north. This looks like good cattle country. Best in the world. Are you a cattle rancher? Well, I don't know how you'd call me a rancher. I've got a little spread west of town here. About 2,000 head longhorns. Sounds like a pretty big ranch to me. Does anybody raise sheep around here? Sheep? Not on your life. We're in a single one of them black and woolly critters in this whole valley. This is cattle country, son. It's going to stay that way. I thought we saw some sheep grazing out far from here. Not unless you rode through Skeleton Canyon. There's plenty of sheep up there. And that's where they're going to stay. Come to think of it, we did ride through Skeleton Canyon, didn't we, Tonto? Ah, you were smart to keep on riding. Them sneaking two-faced burdened sheepherders ain't worth the powder to blow them up. What's the matter? They're open and fight like men. Instead of that, one of them sneaks down here into the valley at night and stampedes our herds. Or fires our barns. Another thing, a couple of ranchers have been dry-gulched. And everybody knows that ghost is the one who done it. Ghost? That's what he calls himself. Rides a white horse and wears a mask. Hides out up in the canyon someplace. That's why we know he's a sheepherder. Seems like I've heard about the ghost. Can't the law catch him? Son, there's thousands of caves in the walls of Skeleton Canyon, but them for a hideout and them sheepmen protecting them, the law ain't got a chance. I wonder why he calls himself a ghost. Because he figures some folks will think he's the spirit of Don Hernandez. But he ain't no spirit. That sneaking critter is flesh and blood. An hour late, 10 to 1, he's a sheepman. Don Hernandez? Who's that? Ain't you never heard? No, I guess she ain't been a stranger in these parts. Don Hernandez is the reason why Skeleton Canyon is called Skeleton Canyon. What do you mean? Well, it all happened hundreds of years ago. Hundreds of years? When the conquistadoris came up into this country from Mexico, one of them gents was a Spanish nobleman named Don Hernandez. When he got as far as a canyon, he decided to settle down. So he built himself a castle. Castle? Sure, it's still standing. What's left of it are the north wall of the canyon. Did Don Hernandez own everything around here? Sure, thousands of square miles, land grant from the king of Spain, and all of his descendants figured they owned it, too. Wow. What happened when this country became a territory of the United States? That's where the pinch came in. There was a Don Hernandez descendant of the original nobleman living in that castle up until about 15 years ago. Why'd he leave? Well, to tell you. His last Hernandez critter figured times hadn't changed any, that he still owned the whole valley and everything in it. So he started charging toward everybody who came through the canyon into the valley and they had to pay him a fee. Did he get away with it? Well, for a while, then some of us gents here in Tokor decided to put a stop to it. We knew, too, that he was smuggling counterband into this country from Mexico. So the sheriff formed a paucine. We went up to Don Hernandez' castle. Did he put up a fight? Quite a bit. He had enough hired gunmen for a private army. There was a lot of shooting and killing, and we moved in and fired the castle. Left it like it is now. He took his tower into the canyon, killed himself, and for years after that some folks claimed they could see his skeleton hanging on a cliff. And that's why they call it skeleton canyon, huh? Yep. Don Hernandez had a son, too, but the law tried him and sent him to prison for life. See, that sure swell story. Gospel truth, every bit of it. But this ghost... Oh, that vomit. He's just some sheep man trying to make us valley folks thinks he's the avenging spirit of Don Hernandez. I was just talking to the sheriff yesterday. It's time we formed another posse. Maybe the ghost isn't a sheep man. Who else could it be? These dirty sneaking kiosk would... There's a lot for the information, Mr. Nash. I guess we'll be moving along. Sure, sure. If you ever come to Toko again, look me up. We will. Bye, Mr. Nash. Come on, tunnel. So long, kid. Well, tunnel, I don't know what the lone ranger will think of our information, but we sure got plenty of it. He was helplessly trapped in a sealed stone cell with a heavy iron door. The lone ranger realized his position was desperate. Exerting all his strength, he was unable to move the door. Locked on the outside. Oh, you should... Oh, wait. There's a small grill at the top. My arm is long enough to reach through. That's a lock I can... No, the lock's only a sliding bolt. They can only reach it some way. For several minutes, the masked man tried in vain to reach the outside bolt by pushing his arm through the small grill at the top of the door. Then at last, he evolved an ingenious plan. Removing the raw hide lacing from his holster, he fashioned a miniature lariat with a smooth running slipknot with but a matter of a few moments before the tiny lasso was swinging freely on the outside of the door. With dexterous skill and uncanny timing, he tossed the thumb-sized raw hide toward the unseen door bolt. Suddenly, he felt the leather grow tall. That's it. There, I've got it. Still haven't found the ghost. I know how and where he disappears. On my next visit, I should have more luck. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Tuttle and I got back from Choco over an hour ago. Couldn't figure out why you weren't here. Lady, I was detained, Dan. Did you find out anything, Tuttle? Ah, cattleman and capet talked long time. Tell plenty. Yeah, maybe it isn't important, but we do have a lot to tell you. Good. Go ahead and tell me. This is called Skeleton Canyon. While the cattleman and Tocca, I think the ghost really is the one... As Dan repeated all that Sam Nash had told him, the Lone Ranger seemed lost in thought. When the boy finished, he asked several questions. That's very interesting, Dan. When did you say the castle was burned and Don Hernandez killed himself? About 15 years ago. And, uh, what became of his son? Mr. Nash said he was sent to prison for life. Not a... The county seat is about 20 miles south of here. Can you ride Darren back before tomorrow morning? Ah. Good. I'll write a note. I want you to take it to the sheriff. He'll give you an answer. Bring it back. You do it. You scout. If Mr. Nash was telling the truth, it won't be very long before the cattleman and Tocca will ride up here and try to find out which one of the sheepraisers is the ghost. That's right, Dan, unless the sheepmen ride to Tocca first. Yeah, then it'll mean a war between them. I'm afraid so. It's what we must prevent. It's possible. Hurry, Tonto, and get back as soon as you can. Uh-uh. You wait here, Kimusabe. We're not here. We'll be at the castle, Tonto. You can find us. Uh-uh. Get him out of this county! Are we really going to the castle? Yes, we've got to, Dan. I'm sure the answer to everything is there. Shortly before sundown, the Lone Ranger and Dan rode to the bend on the upper trail where the masked man had discovered the break in the canyon wall. Oh, please, oh, please! I believe the horse is here, Dan. Steady silver, steady boy. Golly, what was that? The big overhang at the top of the gourd. Someone has blasted it. It'll fill the canyon. Make a dam across the creek. If anything, we'll start a war between the sheep and cattle men. It's a loss of water. What are you going to do? We'll ride up there. Come on, settle back. Get up, Victor. More Victor. Oh, gee, look. There must be 50 men over there. They're all carrying guns. Listen. We're up in the valley. Heard that explorers bigot wanted fire. Well, I want to tell you this, the cattlemen are riding up here now. This blast and narrowing the creek will give them just the excuse they want to try to wipe us out. Are we going to hold still for that? No! The rest of the bigot will be ready for them. That's going to be a war, all right. We've got to stop it. Follow me, Dan. Where? The castle. Come on, settle down. Get up, Victor. A few minutes later, the Lone Ranger and Dan were outside the stone wall of the ancient castle. They walked quickly through the door and across the large stone room. This is the iron door I told you about. It's unlocked. But isn't this the room where you live? There must be another door in these walls someplace. The ghost disappeared in here. Calli and it... There. That's it. Look. That stone on the wall over there. It's moving. See? It opens into a tunnel. Down, Dan. Get down. I can see him running the other end of the tunnel. Come on. Stay behind me. You can only get near enough to him to... Look out, Dan. We've turned water into this tunnel. And Peter, hang on to me. Swim, Dan. Keep your head up. I'll do it. Look, he fell. Tell him the water. He's coming down here. Good. He's caught in his own trap. There. There he is. I can just... Now, swim back towards this stone room, Dan. I'll bring the ghost. He's unconscious. I can see as you got here just in the nick of time. The cattlemen are coming up the trail now. What's been worrying us is what stopped the river from rising. I told you the underground tunnel in the castle is the original creek bed. This man, the ghost, knew the secret. He's the one who set off the blast. But why? Because he's partially insane. Because he wanted revenge against all of you, both cattle and sheepmen. Who is the critter, you know? Yes, this is Taddo. I'll know in just a minute. Let me bring note from Sheriff. Thanks, Taddo. Yes. This is just as I thought it was. Well, what do you mean? This man is Don Hernandez. Hernandez? You mean the young one? He was sent to prison for life. But he was pardoned three months ago. My Indian friend just brought work from the sheriff at the county seat. Well, I'll be... So the ghost was the son of Hernandez. He probably reasoned in his insane way that if he could start a war between you and the cattlemen, then flood the canyon with all revert to him. What's going to happen to him now? He'll turn him over to your sheriff. Here's a note that explains everything. Well, Taddo, let's go. Oh, wait. Wait a minute. Who was that hombre you were just talking to? Wasn't he wearing a mask? Yeah. The ghost? No. There's the ghost. Laying over there on the ground, unconscious. Well, then who was the other critter? I don't know. Give me a note to give to the sheriff. A note? Well, look at it. Maybe he signed his name. Yeah. He'd signed. Well, what's the name? The Lone Ranger. Are you still there? The party you have just heard is a copyrighted feature of the Lone Ranger Incorporated.