 of dust in a hearty high old silver rider 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 hoof beats of the great horse silver the lone ranger rides again come on jim ashley pulled his gaunt team and rickety buckboard was stopped before the one room sod house he built here on the edge of elktorn flats oh oh you're critical jim ashley was a tall raw bone man in his late 20s his deeply sunburned face bore a grim expression there were small wrinkles at the corners of his gray eyes wrinkles that had once been laugh lines but jim hadn't laughed much in the last two years certainly not since he'd brought his wife and child out to live in this sunbaked desert of elkorn flats as he stepped down from the buckboard he could hear virginia trying to put the baby to sleep vergey vergey vergey i think that we'd better get there it's been so hot this afternoon it's no wonder he doesn't want to sleep yeah it is hot that ain't what's bothering him well he's a pretty poor substitute for food i'm a fine kind of acquitted to call myself a man can't even rustle enough grub to feed my wife and baby not jim talking that way won't help any did you hitch up the team that's right outside i'll just wrap up a little jim here he'll like the ride to town even if he is asleep vergey i i got a feeling we'll just be wasting our time asking anderson for any favors maybe not gee there's no hormone trying come on climb up on the seat vergey i'll hold a little jim here riding 10 miles in an open buckboard won't be much fun vergey the baby and i won't mind you think anderson might stake us to enough grub to keep going for a while won't do any harm to us get up there come on get up because nadi won't even talk to me you don't have to take abuse from anyone jim if anderson turns us down we'll get along somehow well i guess it ain't really his fault matt king's the cause of it trying to starve us out that's what he's doing you don't know that for sure jim yes i do matt king's got more power in this county than any man deserves but men don't deliberately try to starve out women and children jim even men like matt king you don't know vergey that king don't care about anything but himself here's where thinking cattle are more important than human beings maybe not didn't he clamp down a week last fall and drive off our stock we never knew for sure didn't he burn that patch of corn we were saving for me in this winter i tell you vergey i know what i've got to be patient jim maybe after a while he'll get tired of bothering us patient sometimes i think we'd be smart to pack up and clear out and start again somewhere else jim you promised me you'd never talk that way again why we've made our home here and we're going to stay but anderson still hasn't staked us any grub how do we know until we ask you maybe get up there come on get up kind of deserted folks to be out oh there's nat turner his team is hitched to the cottonwood yeah might as well grab up alongside of him ought to be shady there i can wait for you oh oh boys hi nat oh hello jim oh hi mrs ashley well pretty good nat the baby's not so well that's too bad with the trouble same trouble we've all got no food yeah he's just into anderson's store ask him to stand me off he wouldn't do says he can't told him we'd have a crop for the summers over we'll all have a crop now that we've got water from prairie creek i'm afraid all of us farmers are going to run into trouble jim kind of that fencing job we did at prairie creek the creek's on my property it's nobody's business but mine if you tom nobel and the rest of the farmers want to use the water to irrigate the land sure that's the way we feel but i'm going over to anderson's store you wait here virginia matt king and two of his cow punches just went into anderson's gym thanks nat matt king's just the ombre i'm looking for hello mr anderson hello ashley i'd like to talk to you about doing some trading cash well you're wasting your time ashley you have the same answer to nat turner that other dirt farm i know but we've got a irrigation ditches dug now and it's out of three months yeah mr king here was just talking about your plans for irrigating oh it was that's right ashley the boys and me just rode through prairie creek they see you ain't pulled down that wire yet not going to pull it down listen sad buster i'm giving you one more day to pull down that wire understand prairie creek is legally mine the wire stays we'll see about that there's a tough winner ahead king i've got a wife and a baby to feed i'll earn enough money to feed him and you can't stop the nester like you ain't big enough around the middle of bluff me so don't try i'm not trying to bluff anybody you've all hired at me and my friends ever since we settled here in elkhorn flat we can take a lot king but we can dish it out too listen if you nesters place any value on your hides you'll pack up and clear out before i really get mad you'll spoil the grace of me your plows and you've wired off prairie creek so you can irrigate your land with water that belongs the cattle is that all you have to say any more talk and i do will be with led and i might as well give you what you deserve right now a gunplay a jet that's one punch you wish you'd never thrown ashley i'm sure i'll never regret it boss why didn't you let me drill anderson who was that followed ashley out the door just a red skin who's been hanging around here for the last couple of days he don't mean anything what about the nester boys you're not gonna let him get away with it are you we'll take care of all of those sod busters and do it at one clip come on boys hello buddy any luck jim well no not exactly anderson said things are pretty tight right now and met king yeah was he in the store we had a few words that's all never mind jim let's drive on out home i'm sure everything will turn out all right no it won't verge it's a trouble there's no harm and hope get up there come on get up home jim and i i think i ought to tell you tell me what look under the say what's this canned goods bacon and cornmeal where'd you get it verge while you were in anderson's store i went to spooner's market and bought it but you didn't have it how'd you pay for it i made one stop before i got to spooner's jim i stopped at the pawn shop pawn shop my rings see i i hated to do it jim but the baby's got to have food and so do we we'll redeem it jim you had to pawn your wedding ring because a coyote like matt king wants more brazen land for his cattle he says he only talks with lead when i speak the same language get up come on get up there a trail side camp a few miles from alcorn the lone ranger and dan reid waited for tonto to return from town with supplies this must be tattle now your brother supplies tonto huh me bring bring news too what kind of news matt king cattlemen not like the farmers who live in alcorn plant there's nothing unusual in that farmers will make out all right they're getting water from prairie creek me know but jim ashley had fight with matt king and anderson store a fight ashley hit king and king say from now on him no longer talk him use lead that's bad i was afraid of something like this when i saw that prairie creek was fenced off yesterday afternoon well listen the creek on land that belongs to mr ashley yes it is dan well then how can the cattlemen claim that this is a fight that will go on for years dan all over this country the government opening land of homesteaders cattle raisers see the end of open range and all it means that's water they're fighting about why don't they share it there's enough for everybody yes of course but the cattlemen were here first they resent the homesteaders coming in and we break camp ride south no tonto i think we'll stay here for a few days i want you and dan to ride back to alcorn this afternoon oh what do we do there get all the information you can on jim ashley and the rest of the farmers and what you do kim usabi i'll wait here tonight for all then right over to matt king's ranch was almost 10 o'clock that evening when matt king walked into the bunkhouse where his two top hand for waiting for him red beat yeah it's a matter man so it's somebody i'm sure every sudden busting nest to this trying to squat on this range yeah red was telling me about what happened in anison store today you and that lanky critter jim ashley never mind that rest of the boys are herding steers over in the valley right over then get them drive the herd in with you better leave the stock in the valley matt no water here on the flats the critters plenty of water at prairie creek it's fence double strands of barbed wire i ain't never seen a cow critter that can walk through that well water in the stock at prairie creek tomorrow morning barbed wire won't stop bullets but nesters will they might gang up on us matt and we can some matter red you look like you just saw a ghost i saw somebody looking in that window an ombre wearing a mask nah you might be what the it's a rock somebody threw a rock no it ain't a bullet look yeah silver bullet with a no tie to it see it says matt king let me see it is it for you matt why if i catch the dirty sneak environment that wrote this what's it say matt king if you talk with lead i'll talk with silver it's up to you the curtain falls on the first act of our lone ranger story before the next exciting scenes please permit us to pause for just a few moments to continue our story the following morning jim ashley has tried a gaunt and underfed saddle horse pulled up sharply in front of another sod house similar to his own it was the home of matt turner oh boy oh boy oh net oh net thought you might be plowing over by the ridge not today i'm used to doing any more plowing till we know for sure whether we can get water we've got the water net we're going to keep it i heard that you and matt king did the only thing i could do next moves up to him that may mean shooting jim that's what it takes to protect our rights then they'll be shooting what do you say i'm with you jim so is tom nobel and the rest of the dry farmers matt king's got a lot of gun hands up to us to match him some way what do we do i'm riding over to prairie quick now we've got a post a 24 hour guard to watch that fence you want to ride along sure sure jim i ain't got a saddle horse but one of my plow mules can pack a blanket rig put it on him and let's get going in the meantime peat and red under orders from matt king rode toward the sunbake shack that jim and virginia called home you know red i ain't got much of a hankering for this job now matt knows what he's doing if you break the leader of these nesters arrest them or run like scared golfers nationally he's the leader huh he's the one who does all the talking the one who hit matt and the job and why don't we go after him his wife ain't in on this argument we're working for matt king peat we'll do whatever he says shut up here we are oh boy hold on steady steady actually his horse is gone guess he ain't around that's why we're here yes i reckon you're mrs jim ashley that's right if you've got anything in this shack that you want to save you'd better get it out what do you mean because we're burning it down pronto burning now don't worry you ain't the only one every other nesters getting the same treatment but you can't burn our rat hasn't got a hole to live in he'll clear out might have taught you peat this dry sod will burn like paper yeah sure but my baby and everything we own is in this house if you get a brat in there just fetch it out oh jim jimmy all right peat fired up all right that's it now come on let's fam who's are we going to stick around the water jim ashley can't claims he owns is three miles from here let him figure out a way to get it over here get up boy get up boy this is anderson store tunnel we're going to talk to him we're strangers in town i'm looking for jim ashley do you know him ashley you mean the nester i thought he was a farmer cattlemen call him nesters well do you know him sure i know all of him ashley turner nobler and a dozen others work and i find mr ashley he owns a shack about 10 miles out on the flights thanks come on tunnel so hey dad redskin you've got with you the one who bought supplies here yesterday oh yeah it's a trouble with engines all they do is say uh can't tell whether they save you or not that's right come on tunnel sure i know jim ashley just another sod buster he hasn't got a thin dime and he never will have what makes you say that well he's a nuster ain't he they're all alike thanks thanks for the information names jim ashley i thought maybe you'd be an assurer if you might know him sure i know jim hardworking young fella got away from baby it's too bad what's bad about it a dry farmer in the cattle country has got two strikes against him before he starts well aren't there other dry farmers around here lots of them the only reason is tougher for jim is because he's sort of appointed himself their leader you're the law here in elcorn can't you help mr ashley sure son i'm the law but i'm also smart enough not to run against the grain of matt king oh then matt king is the real reason that things are tough for mr ashley and the rest of the farmers huh well i wouldn't want to be quoted on this but you ain't far from the truth oh thanks very much what is it my friend and i've been looking all over town for a man named jim ashley do you know him they never met him i'm sorry to have trouble wait a minute my boy yeah you were fine looking young sir just a kind of friend i imagined jim ashley would have i thought you didn't know him i don't but i'm in a strange business my boy a pawn broker gets to know a lot of folks he's never seen you mean mr ashley pawned something with you no he only ashley's i know uh mrs ashley and a baby she was in here yesterday afternoon she didn't talk much but i knew what was wrong no crops and no money no food yeah the sheriff told me about that jim ashley and all the other dry farmers are in the same position matt king's a law in this town isn't he is i guess he is but matt king knew anyone else can keep me from loaning money on a wedding ring loaning as much as i wanted no he can't and i think i understand what you mean goodbye sir come on tunnel it was late that evening when jim ashley tired from a long day of patrolling the fence at prairie creek finally rode up within the side of his house what the oh oh the shack it's it's gone vergy and little jim maybe the get up there come on get up there jim jim vergy oh what happened vergy the shack is burnt there's nothing left it happened early this afternoon the baby is it he's all right neither of us were hurt oh well how did it happen did the stove explode jim the fire wasn't an accident what do you mean well those men the two cow punchers who work for matt king they set it afire yes jim the buck board's still here i pulled it away from the back of the house after the fire started come on vergy we'll hitch up the team and drive you and little jim over to mrs turners you can spend the night there won't you'll be with us i'm going to round up every man who has a farm here on the flat and see oh it's nat turner jim what happened to your shack a couple of matt king's men burned it down this afternoon i just rode over to tell you what some of the boys were out in the valley today while you and me were watching the creek matt king's crew rounding up his entire herd of steers they're driving them down to prairie creek tonight they are huh well that's good well what's good about it king's men will snip our barbed wire water their stock and all this land will be open range again now it won't net when king drives this cattle to the creek tonight we'll be waiting for him waiting for him with the only kind of talk he understands gunfire and the slave will take the heel of drag and for prairie creek they're coming jim i can hear the cattle get your guns ready and stay right here by the creek hear that boys yes we got it jim gosh you don't suppose king's gonna drive his beef right into their barbed wire no there'll be some embrace trying to snip it pretty soon keep your eyes peeled yes total you've got matches ready to make torch yep i'm all set as soon as you give the word well that come plenty quick me here cattle total when the lone ranger told us what to do he said you'd know the exact minute to start the prairie fire because you could tell when the wind was gonna change that right but how total how can you tell indian always tell when wind will change him just watch moon clouds move cross moon mean wind moves same way on ground plenty soon golly that's right but i never would have thought of it i don't see how that quick light fire the wind behind it it won't be long before that strip is a hundred yards wide plenty wide to stop cattle they change and go other way we ain't see look over to the left fire prairie fire and traveling fast too what's going to cut right in front of the cattle hey i wonder keep your eyes on that wire boys he may think we started that fire and send his gunslingers in here where's max he was right in the long side of it just a minute ago thought i saw a white horse and a mass man riding with a white horse mass man you must be dreaming there i guess so there goes a stock after scare like this fire it'll take two months to round him up again no sense in riding into that barb wire now mat pull down i'm leaving too so my let's head back for the ranch we whipped him jim whipped him scared the daylights out of him we didn't whip it the prairie fire did it wonder who started that fire what do we care who started it mat king didn't drive his stock in the creek still belongs to us fire stopped the cattle but why didn't mat king and his punches right in anyway it ain't nothing for us to worry about we'll say jim your wife's waiting for you over there just drove up in the buck board i'm looking for jim ashley that's me son what do you want i've got two messages for you here's the first one what is it jim mat king king he says he's changed his mind about prairie quick he wants to get together with all of us and talk over a 50-50 agreement on water rides well what do you suppose made that hard shelled old jasper changes mine i don't know i'm glad now that there was no bloodshed on either side here's the other note thanks kid but hey wait a minute where you going he's bare moose what's in that note jim there's nothing written on it but wait there's something in the envelope verge oh verge what is it jim look isn't this your wedding ring why yes it is but how did you get it in this envelope who sent it i don't know verge but i've got a hunch it's the same person who saved prairie quick for us and made matt king changes mind i've just heard is a copyrighted feature of the lone ranger incorporated