 A fiery horse for the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty high old silver, the Lone Ranger. The lure of gold brought many settlers to the early western United States. The government regulated the filing of claims to the best of its ability. But gunplay settled many boundary disputes, and was in the gold country that the masked rider of the planes did some of his best work. With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, he fought for the rights of honest men, and the memory of his deeds will remain as long as the memory of the early west itself. And now return with us to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From all of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver. The Lone Ranger rides again! Steve Gardner's mind was in the district surrounding Oak Falls. As our story opens, we see a hard-faced man working at the end of the long tunnel, which has been dug into the side of the hill. You blame well, Steve's vein had run out. All he'd done was come to a fault. If he kept on going, he'd have struck the vein again. Shopper Geosaphase, here, give me that pick. I'm going to have a look for myself. Just pick up that piece you knocked off and have a look at it. Grrly, it's Richard O's before Steve lost it. Come on, bigger. Look at there. Well, that vein's twice as thick through as it was before. We're rich. We're going to have a fortune. Hold on a second. What for? Ain't you forgetting something? Forgetting something. You're forgetting this vein ain't on our claim. But we're standing the Steve's property. But that something can be thick, yeah? We get off from a price first claim. After all, as far as he knows, it ain't worth much. Oh, don't be a doggone fool. You know, just how far we'd get trying to do business with him again after that one claim we sold him. The one we sold him, you mean? Jake, I never seen a fellow so tarnation mad as he was after that deal. He was fit to be tired. Special cause, he couldn't prove nothing. But it looks like the couple of hundred dollars we made on that claim was going to keep us from cleaning up on this other. I don't know. Steve's pa's mighty sick and needs a heap of doctrine. Steve might jump at the chance to get a little cash on hand. Maybe, but I doubt it. Well, come along. Won't hurt none to talk to him. He's too blame-stubborn to sell. Well, there's ways to get around that. You got something in mind, Bull? I might have. And here's the hole that takes us into the main tunnel. Blast it, Jake. Why'd you have to make it so small if Ella can hardly squeeze through? Well, it had to be small enough to cover up easy, didn't it? If anybody ever found out we tunneled from our claim into Steve's, it'd be the devil to pay. Well, you go on through first, John. All right, Bull, come on. Well, last it holy, big enough for a snake. There, there. Like I was saying, Jake, if Steve won't sell, I got another idea. Yeah? I figure something happened to Steve. His pa'd sell out and be glad of the chance. Something happened to Steve? Now, look here, Bull. If you're planning to drill him, you can count me out. I don't aim to have the sheriff on my trail. We couldn't be blamed if somebody else drilled in, could we? Huh? Yeah, here's the entrance. Doug, gonna find always glad to get outside again where a fella don't have to worry about rock-cavening on him. Yeah. There's smoke showing from Steve's place. He must be home all right. Come on. Just what you mean about somebody else drilling Steve? You ever hear a big stone canyon? Oh, don't recollect nothing. If Steve won't sell, that place is just made to order for us. Yeah, but what about it? I'll tell you about it later. We don't want Steve to hear nothing. Huh? Why you? If I don't have a shoe fella's knock, then I've told you to go to places. Hmm, fixing yourself some deed, huh? Maybe it's being hungry, makes you so blamed unsociable. Get out of here. Is that Jason Blue, Stevie? Yeah, Pa, but them skunks won't be in here long. Ah, now, Steve, take no use of talking like that when we come to do business. Yeah, even so, you can't get out of bed, Mr. Gardner. I'm all assailant dad, rabbit. If it ain't one thing, it's the other. Stevie, give me another swaller of my medicine, won't ya? Just a minute, Pa, and I'll settle with these pole cats. All right, state your business, then make tracks. Steve, how would you like to sell out? Sell out? Sure. Me and Jake was just talking today about how bad you needed cash. We thought maybe if we bought your claim it'd help you out some. We wouldn't be needing cash if you hadn't cheated us on that other claim you sold us. Shucks, Steve, we're as sorry about that as you are. That's why we'd like to make it up to you now. Sure, that's why, Steve. You're up to something crooked again. You fellas never done nobody a favor in your life. Your claim's petered out, ain't it? Yeah, but a little cash is better than none, ain't it? Not if it's your cash. Oh, come on now, Steve, that ain't no way to talk. Shut up and listen to me. I know you fellas solid that claim I bought off on ya. Even if I can't get evidence, it'll stand up in court. If I hadn't found the one I got now, we'd have been dead broke. And Pa might have died. And I don't care if this claim's finished, too. I'll never do business with low-down, ordinary cheating skunks like you fellas again. And that goes as it lays, so get. Come on, Jake. Ain't no use talking sense to an hombre that don't know sense when he sees it. You fellas come in here again. I'll take my shooting iron to ya. We gave you your chance, Steve, and you threw it down. We won't be back. Bastard fool. Told you he wouldn't listen to that. And I told you if he didn't, there was another way to deal with him. And there is. Come on. I'll tell you about Big Stone Canyon and what I had in mind. It was almost two weeks later that Tonto, the faithful Indian companion of the Lone Ranger, heard someone call to him as he rode down a winding mountain trail. Engine. Any engine. Oh, come on. I'm over here. I'm gonna talk to you. I'm here, come. Hit him up, Scout. That's all right, engine. Oh, Scout, oh, oh, oh. You, you want me? Engine, would you like to make yourself some cash? What me do? You know where Oak Falls is? Uh, that's where a fella mine goes. Uh-huh, that's right. That's where I was heading while my horse went lame just now. Blast the luck. I had something real important to do there. Now I won't be able to make it. Where, horse? That's my horse over there, tethered to that sapling. Now look here, Redston. You do like I want and there's more than a hundred dollars in there for you. Not plenty. You just bet it is. Are you on? You tell Tondo what do. Well, it's like this, engine. I've been prospecting around these hills and I run across a place where there's more gold laying around loose and you can shake a stick at. I wanted to get to Oak Falls and tell a fella I know about it. Now that my horse is lame, I can't ride no further. Hmm, me tell fella, you fine gold. No, no, engine, you can't do that. What matter? You see, engine, the fella I want you to tell don't like me. He thinks I've done him a dirty deal once, so he won't believe nothing I say. I was wondering how I'd let him know without my name being connected with it. Then when I seen you, it came to me hard to be done. What fella's name? He's a young hombre by the name of Steve Gardner. You can't mistake him. He's got a par the seal in all the time. Now here, I'll give you this poker mine. There's over a hundred dollars worth of gold in there. Where you get gold? You just tell Steve you found this gold in Big Stone Canyon, man. What you say? Say, you know that place? No, no, me not know. Oh, I didn't figure you look like an engine to come from around them parts. Well, will you do it? How do I do it? Tell Steve Big Stone Canyon is right where the Bitterroot swings south on the other side of the hills. He can tell it by all the big stones laying loose outside the entrance. And you can keep them nuggets for your trouble. Now you got everything straight? Me not forget. Good, that's just fine. Now get along with you. Remember, you do it just like I said. Me go now. Adios. And you say you know there isn't gold in Big Stone Canyon, Tyler? No, they're not gold in Canyon. But you didn't let them suspect you'd been there before, did you? Me fool and plenty. Good. I wonder what that fellow's game is. You said Big Stone Canyon is a burial place of a famous Indian chief. That means it's sacred to his tribe. Any white man found prospecting there would be killed. Not right. Now, sir, we're going to look into this. What we do? Steady, sir, we're running to Oak Falls. You're going to do exactly what that man told you. Unless he thinks that Steve Gardner is tricked, he'll not show his hand. Show Steve the gold. Tell him you found it in the canyon. Then leave the rest to me. Come to do that. Come on, Tutto. Hurry, old sailor! Get ahead, Red Skin. Fill up your plate again. You're welcome to anything we've got here. Me not want more. Shucks, you haven't had enough to keep a bird alive. Hey, Pa, feeling good enough to have some of this bacon? Now, you just let me sleep some, Stevie. Maybe later on in the day, I'll be able to swallow some vitals. In sick. Pa ain't been well for the past five years, Red Skin. Gosh, I'd give him a right arm to have the cash to send him eat, where he could be took care of right. But it ain't like I'll ever have that much all at one time. Maybe me help him. Huh? What could you do? Inch and no many medicine, pale face, not no. Well, it's mighty kind of you, Red Skin, but I reckon you couldn't do any more form than the saw bones in town has done. Huh? Thank you. Hey, where you going? Me leave now. What are you doing with that leather poke? Me pay for grub. Now, hold on, Red Skin. We don't want no pay for what you wet. What? Jerusalem, Red Skin. Where'd you get that gold? Me find long way off. Gold? If I knew where to lay my hands on some nuggets like Tim, I could take care of Pa the way he should be. I could... Gosh, Red Skin, you wouldn't tell me just where it was you found that, would you? Me tell you. You will? Me find in Big Stone Canyon. Huh? Where's that? It's where Bitterroot River goes south. There's Big Stone outside. That's how Canyon get named. And there's more of that gold where you found that? Mmm, plenty more. Whoa! Say, you haven't told nobody else about this canyon, have you? Can't only tell you. Pa, Pa, did you hear that? Red Skin, tell me where I could get more gold like he's got. Hey, Red Skin, come here. Huh? You said maybe you could help Pa. I don't suppose you can, but would you be willing to stay with him while I'm gone? If you ain't, I'll have to let that gold go. I can't leave Pa all by itself. No, Steamy. Me stay. Red Skin, you're a gift from heaven. You're the best fellow I ever seen. I'm getting packed and I'm leaving for Big Stone Canyon today. Checks, you're the laziest horse I ever did see. But I'm telling you, fella, if you carry me to where there's real pager, I'll see to it you don't ever have to work again. Uh-uh. I'll turn you loose with a pastor and long and tasty and green. I'll feed you so many oats you'll get so fat you won't be knowing yourself. Come on, gentlemen! Who's that? A masked man, an outlaw. Get up there, get up there! Oh, no, man! Get away from me! Get up, get up there! Get back, get away! Stop your horse! Let go of that rattle or I'll pluck you! Oh, you won't get snatched by a gun! Oh, children, no more! Children! What's the idea? You can't do it! You're going with me, Steve. But wait a minute. You're going to my camp. I have no cash. I ain't got nothing an outlaw'd want. That's what we're going to find out. I got it. You're a friend of bulls and jakes. They sent you gunning for me. Just like them polecats, I hired somebody to shoot me down. Just the contrary. I'm saving your life. The curtain falls on the first act of our thrilling Lone Ranger drama. Before the next exciting scenes, please permit us to pause for just a few moments. Now to continue our story. As Steve Gardner was making his way toward Big Stone Canyon, in the belief that he could find gold there, he was captured by the Lone Ranger. Several weeks later, we see the two miners, known as Bull and Jake, as they approach the Gardner cabin. I don't figure we're calling on old Andy too soon, do you, Bull? Steve's been going three weeks, ain't he? Yeah, but I don't... Nothing. I save them engines by Big Stone Canyon. If they didn't scalp Steve for going in there, I'll eat my shirt. You most likely did, but you can't be sure. Look here, Jake. If Steve was alive, he'd have been back here by this time after finding out he got fooled. Yeah, maybe. And if he ain't been killed, it don't make no difference. Just so he ain't around. Well, why don't it? Because I've been looking things up. And I've found where he's got both his claims registered and his pa's name. Is that a fact? Uh-huh. We're going to get Andy to sell out to us, or I'll know the reason why. He ain't like Steve. I ain't worried about him not selling it. No, Andy. It's me and Jake. He was down. This ain't no time for hard words, Andy. We... we got some bad news for you. Bad... bad news? About Steve. Your boy. There... there ain't nothing happened to him, has there? Well, it... Oh, shucks, you tell him, Jake. Wait... wait till I sit down. Sure. I... I thought I was getting stronger since Tauno's been here, but I... I reckon I'm a mite weaker than I figured. Andy, this red skin you call Tauno's been the means of killing Steve. No. Steve? Dead? No. It can't be so. I'm powerful sorry to have to tell you about it, but it's so. Me and Bull just heard about it today, so we came right over. Go... go on. You see, Andy, it seems like this canyon where Steve went is a bad place for white folks. The engines up there won't stand for a white man going in the canyon, because it's a place where a chief of theirs was buried. And when Steve went inside looking for gold, the red skins found his trail and killed him. Steve... dead. I... I just don't seem able to get it through my head that... it don't seem no ways possible. The trapper told us he wouldn't have no reason for lying about it. I... I reckon not. I don't suppose you're any too well fixed for cash, are you, Andy? If it hadn't been for Tauno, I wouldn't have had nothing to eat. And to think it was Tauno got my boy killed. What we was thinking was that maybe now needing cash like you do, you'd consider selling the claim. Sell it? Why not? You ain't got the strength to work it. No. And what if Steve was again selling it to us? You sure wouldn't ask you to starve when the kind of the way he felt? I... I don't know. I don't seem hardly right, but there ain't nobody else that'll buy it. And I gotta have cash for grubs. Then you'll sell, sure enough? I... give me time to sort of think it over, won't you? Sure, if that's what you want, Andy. We ain't gonna rush things... only... Yeah? Well, even if you do like this red skin that's been staying with you, I wouldn't think you'd exactly hanker to be living off of no longer. After what happened? Just let me think it over, that's all. I'll give you your answer tomorrow. Good enough. Let's get home, Jake. I reckon Andy'd like to be alone for a spare time. Yeah, huh? We'll be back again tomorrow at just the same time. I'll be here. Good day to you. Steve... gone. But... the boy I raised all these years... They'll want no finer boy anywhere. Andy. A masked man. Listen to me, Andy. Steve isn't dead. But they just told me... I know what they told you, but I'm telling you the truth. Here, read this. It's a note from Steve. I think it'll explain everything. Why? Why, he says he's been with you all this time. He has. But why didn't he let me know? Why... It was hard on you, Andy, but it had to be done this way. If you'd known the truth, Bull and Jake might have guessed it. This way, they're convinced you believe Steve is dead. But, stranger, I still don't... convince you that I'm your friend. Steve says to trust you, Mr. And I reckon what Steve says is good enough for me. Good. I've learned a number of things lately. Enough to find a way to punish Bull and Jake. What's that? They plotted Steve's death, Andy. But if you do exactly what I tell you, they'll be brought to justice. They scheme to kill Steve? They did. Why the low-down rotten skunks? Stranger, tell me what your scheme is. We promised we'd be. I don't feel much like talking business the way things are, but, well, after all, you've got to think of how you're going to live. That's all right, fellas. Sit down. Well, now, you're taking it real sensible. Sure, we'll sit down. Have you made up your mind yet? I suppose, rightly, I ought to say. Oh, sure, you sure. And like I told you before, there ain't been nobody but you, fellas, ever gave an offer for the claims. Sharks, why should they? The vain run out, didn't it? That's what I can't figure. If the claim's no good, what do you fellas want with it? Now, look here, Andy. Don't get the notion we're going to offer a whole pile of cash for the mine. What do you give me? $100? We don't aim to be stingy about this. That ain't enough. Huh? Why, you're local. Sharks, don't argue with them, Jake. We'll give $200. Nope. If you want that mine, you'll give $1,000. I say that's twice as much as you paid us for that other claim. Uh-huh. Well, we won't... Shut up, Jake. Andy's a bargain. We'll pay you $1,000. Now, why were Sir Del gone soft-hearted? I'll be blamed if I know. You got the case with you? How much are you carrying, Jake? I got it if you don't mind taking folding money. Folding money to do me? Just a second. I got the papers here already for signing. Good enough. How about witnesses? Hey, I think I've seen a couple fellas just passed by. They'll do all right. Hey, you fellas! All of us? Step in here a minute, won't you? Sure. They're coming? Right here. Howdy, fellas. Step in. Don't mind witnesses and papers, do you? Here's the papers, fellas, and here's pen and ink on the table. Look the papers over, then sign up and pay me the cash. Look at them papers. Them the right ones, Bull? Let me see. Yeah, these are the ones all right. Where's that pen at? What's that? An outlaw, earn a man. I'm still all of you. Careful, Jake. He looks like your plug. I'm one of your slap, brother. What do you want with us? If this is a hold-up, you'll pay for it, mister. We ain't got no cash on a stranger. Honest, we ain't. I'll see about that. Line up there. You can't keep still. Take your hands off of me. I ain't got no cash, I told you. Don't move. I'll search the rest of you. You there. You. Yeah. Nothing worth taking. We told you we didn't have any. I just wasted my time on you. Now I'm going. If a man follows me outside of this door within the next ten minutes, he'll get drilled. Gosh, he never even touched a pocket that had my cash in it. Well, maybe he didn't. We're going to sign these papers, Pronto, and give the cash to Andy. Then if that cook comes back again, he'll just rob this tin of us. Here, hand me that pen. The deed was transferred and the money paid. Then, the next day, Bull and Jake congratulating themselves on their cleverness went to work with pick and shovel in the mine. I'm going to rest a minute, Jake. That's hard work. Well, it sure is. The more I think this deal over, Jake, the funnier it strikes me. It was a slick one, all right. But the best part of it is that even when we get through to where the bane starts again, old Andy won't be able to say nothing. It ain't our fault we run into high grade ore. And it's happened a lot of times before that mines, if it's supposed to be worthless, started paying it again. The old galoot kind of surprised me, though. I never reckoned he'd be stubborn enough to hold off for what he did. Jake, I thought he'd jump at the chance to get a hundred for his claim. Well, don't matter, nun. We'd paid ten times as much. We'd still be getting the bargain. Well, this ain't giving us nowhere, standing here talking. How much further do you figure we have to dig, Jake? Maybe five, six feet. Well, then, let's get at it. Strike the bane? Yeah, let's take the colors. Golly, you're right. Jake, we've bought a fortune for a thousand dollars. Yeah, look at that. Stop working now. What's the same mass, man? Come on, man. Well, those things were doing that work for me. You too, Jake. We thought you was dead. Well, I ain't. I've come back to claim my mind. I can't do it. Don't care what happened. This mind was bought and paid for by us. Even if he ain't dead, Steve, your pa had the right to sell it. And he sold you men a mind, but not this one. Huh? What's that? If you look at your deed again, you'll find you bought the mind. You'd sold it and sold it to Steve some time ago. Well, that ain't so. Oh, you looked at them papers, didn't you? He's trying to bluff us. Of course I looked at him. And they was for this mind right here. Well, they were when you looked at them. What do you mean? But you didn't sign the same papers you looked at. Look, the mask fella's giving you the right of it, fellas. But we signed the papers was on the table. Do you remember when I came in the cabin yesterday? It held us up. He was so busy watching me that you didn't pay any attention to Andy. He'd had a second group of papers prepared. And he substituted those when you weren't looking. Boy, that dirty... It was your own fault. You couldn't wait until the papers were signed and the money given to Andy. You wanted him to be the loser in case of another hold-up. Well, you tricked us. Oh, shut up. What's that, Andy? Hey, you're breaking it. Drop that gun. There it is. I'll take care of the cooks now, stranger. Sheriff! You're a prisoner, Sheriff. I'll see if they get a plenty. We can't hold them on nothing else. Assault with intent to kill, keep them in jail a mighty long time. All right, boys. Bring them along. Hey, guys, Steve. I was sure glad to hear it when the masked man told me you were still alive. Paul, when I first met up with the masked fellow, I figured him to be a friend of these cunts. But it didn't take me long to figure different after I talked to him. But how did he find out there was gold here? He didn't know it till after these crooks started to work. He said we'd let them think they'd bought the mine, then they'd show why they wanted it. Well, I'll be doggone. They showed us where the gold was. And on top of that, paid us back twice as much as we paid them for that no-good claim they sold us. Paul, now you can go east and get all the fancy doctrine you need. Look here, Stevie. I don't need no doctrine. The masked fellow made a switch, and the engine made me well. Them two fellers beat anything I ever seen. The story you have just heard is a copyrighted feature of the Lone Ranger Incorporate.