 Fiery horse with a speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty high old silver, the lone ranger. In the early days of the western United States, the local sheriffs were powerless against the bands of outlaws that roamed the frontier. And it was not until the masked rider of the plane started his great fight for justice that the lives and property of the honest settlers became safe. It was the lone ranger's strength and courage, his daring and resourcefulness that won a final victory for the forces of law and order and made possible the winning of the west. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoofbeach, the great horse Silver, the lone ranger rides again. Come on, Silver! It's going to be trouble! High old Silver! Sheriff Standish had only one prisoner as a result of his efforts to clean up a ruthless gang of cattle thieves. He talked with the man for hours, trying to persuade him to give evidence against the leader of the gang. But the prisoner refused to talk. But hang it all, Sid! It ain't that we got anything much against you. Nothing but attempted murder. We've been all over that, Sheriff. If you'll tell me some of the things I want to know, I'll guarantee that you won't get more than 30 days in jail. Just strong enough to keep you safe and sound during the trial of Dan Jagger. You can't arrest Dan Jagger. He ain't a thing against him. Not now. But we all know he's the leader of the cattle thieves. All I wanted some help from you. Ain't given it. You realize that you can hang? Uh-huh. Or go scot-free? I ain't talking, Sheriff. And it don't matter how long you keep at me. I'm ashamed. I'm downright disgusted with you, Sid. I reckon you must be. You're scared. You're a yeller. You think Dan Jagger can get at you even here in the jail? Call me all the names you like, Sheriff. You figured that if you squeal on Jagger, he'll find a way to kill you. He would, too. Not if you squeal so as I can arrest and try and hang him. Some of his gang would get me in that case. You'll hang if you don't talk. I'll take my chances on it. You figured Jagger'll get you out of the jail, don't ya? Well, forget any such notions. He can't, and he won't. Who are you, stranger? Your wife sent some food over, Sheriff. The prisoner's food. Oh, well, put it down on the desk there. I'm staying here behind the bars with the prisoner for the time. Very well. Well, is there anything else? Jagger's around town. Did you know it? What about it? He has an idea of the prisoner's squealing. That ain't so. Ain't no part of it so. Tell him that. Tell Jagger nothing. Who are you, anyhow? I've never seen you around the town before. I just happened by. I saw your wife across the street and the mud was deep. She asked me to bring the food here. Good enough. Close that outer door when you leave. Very well. Mind if I try some of this, too? Looks first-rate. You've got a plenty nerve. Who's sampling my vittles? Hey, you'll leave their stuff be. That's for me. You're welcome to it. There's not a lot of salt in it. I... I hope you choke on it, Blastier. Hey, watch your hand on you. Let me out in here. You stand back while I open the door, Sid. Something's wrong. That food. It tastes poison, perhaps. Great gun. Stranger. Stranger, here. Let me get you some water. That was my food. If he's got poison that was meant for me, that's the same as trying to murder me. It's a plot. It's a scheme against my life. Hey, shut up, Sid. Here, take a drink of the water. Maybe that'll help. Sheriff, listen carefully. This is a trick. It might help you. The prisoner thinks Dan Jagger is going to get him anyway. He might be more willing to talk. Sheriff! Sheriff! Make him tell who poisoned that grub. I get the ID, Stranger. Help me, help man. Him friend, huh? Let the Indian get me out of here, Sheriff. All schemed up, huh? All right, I get you. Me. Me fix him. Come out. Can you carry a man that size, Indian? Me talk, big man. Me take him to a place. Get help. Sheriff! Sheriff! Who poisoned my grub? Who do that to me? I ain't... Sid, you can draw your own conclusions. Maybe the food wasn't poisoned at all. Maybe it was something else that was wrong with the stranger. It was poison. I seen what I seen. Well, suit yourself. You gotta protect me. You gotta see that nobody... Nothing I can do, I ain't doing, Sid. I talked my fool head off trying to make you see that your best course was to put Dan Jagger and the Calaboose on the strength of evidence that you could give. But how can you... I ain't sayin' another word about it now. If he's got the notion that you've been talkin', he'll get you no matter what I'll try to do to safeguard ya. Sheriff. Look, Sheriff. I got things to do. But wait, wait, Sheriff. Listen to me. If I tell enough to jail Dan Jagger, you won't put him in here with me, will ya? No, I wouldn't do that. I'll find another place to hold you till after the Jagger's trial. And he'd hang. If you spoke up as a witness for the state of his trial, there wouldn't be no doubt about it. All right. All right, then I'll tell all I know about Dan Jagger. Try to pison me, will he? Well, now you just listen. Me unto arrest? Now, you dog-won fool, you can't arrest me, Sheriff. You ain't a thing again, me. We'll see about that at the trial, Jagger. Come along now. You don't be sorry about this, you wager. Come on! We want you for murder. Has the jury reached a verdict? We have, Your Honor. We find the prisoner, Dan Jagger, guilty of murder in the first degree as charged in the indictment. Sorry, you can't hang me. I'll never hang. I'll get square for this. You, you said you're the one that double-crossed me. I'll get you if I have to come back from my grave to do it. Take him away! Take me away! Go ahead. Trail me. Hang me. But you won't stop me from getting square with that coyote. Make him stop! I'll get you, Sid! I'll get you! Dan Jagger was sentenced to hang and excitement rose to a fever pitch in the town. The lone ranger and his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, camped just outside the town, had followed every detail of the trial and, in spite of all the questions that were asked, Dan Jagger didn't tell a thing that would involve anyone else. Yet he must have a huge organization. That's right. People who have been rated by those cattle thieves have said there were as many as 40 men. Oh. Dan Jagger knows them all, but he chose to hang rather than tell anything that would implicate his pals. And that wasn't like Dan Jagger. He's a coward, Tonto. At heart, the man's a coward. Him plenty strange. He has a plan of some sort. He feels that something is going to interfere with the hanging. He hasn't any thought of really being executed. What him do? I don't know. The sheriff has certainly brought in men enough to guard against the jailbreak. He's sworn in a dozen new deputies, and everyone is a respectable man who couldn't possibly be associated with the Jagger gang. What we do? Tonto, we're going to stay around this part of the country for the time being. What do? First, we'll make certain the prisoners hang according to the law. Then we'll see what happens. That gang will have to choose a new leader. That's right. Plenty trouble to find new leader, huh? Well, there's likely to be. Tonto Savi. I'm counting on the outlaws fighting among themselves when they try to choose a new leader. But they do. We might be able to learn the identity of some of the other members of the gang. Oh. We might be able to help foil an attempt to save Jagger from the hangman's noose. We'll see. Is the disguise all right, Tonto? Uh, no one know you. They're bringing Jagger to the noose. Where's Sheriff? When the Sheriff himself doesn't come to hangings. He lets the deputy take charge. Everything ready now. There has to be an attempt to rescue Jagger. It'll have to come soon. Jan Jagger, have you anything to say before the sentence of the court is carried out? Yes. Speak quick, then. I got just this to say. A double-crossed snake that's in a jail bought his freedom by squealing on me. Well, he won't enjoy that freedom for long because I'll get him. That don't make sense, Dan. You'll see. You'll see that I'm too powerful to hang. I'm bigger than the law. I'll come back and get to where I was at. I'll get to where the jury that followed me gave me and the judge that said I had to die. Have you got more to say? Now, well then, Dan, may the Lord have mercy on your soul. Well, that's it, Tudor. The law's been carried out. Doctor, look at Jagger now. We'll get out of here, but we'll watch. Now that a new leader has to be chosen, we may get evidence on the rest of the gang. Come on, Tudor. Jagger was hanged for one murder. That won't by any means smash the wrestling gang. All right. What's the matter, Tudor? Tudor, I wonder. You wonder what? Crooks say him come back. I think he expected that he'd be rescued right up to the last minute. Have you another idea? Him not act like him, expect help. No, he didn't at that. Him say come back, get even, get revenge. That's out of the question. Tonto wonder. Strange things have happened in this wild country, Tudor, but, well, I've never yet seen a dead man walk. After the hanging, Sid was brought back to the jail. That night, there was only one man on guard, the sheriff himself. The lone ranger still wearing his disguise, found the lawman in his office. Sheriff, has there been any trouble since this morning? You! You're all gone, stranger. I wanted to see you again. I wanted to shake your hand and thank you for that stunt that led to the capture of Dan Jagger. It didn't work as well as I had hoped, though. Jagger's done for. But the cattle thieves aren't broken up. No, but without a leader. They'll have a new leader. Do you thought anything about Dan Jagger's threats? Threats? He said several times that he'd return and get square. Ah, I don't take no stock and talk of that sort. He seemed to be very serious about it. He's dead. He's buried. Right now, Dan Jagger's in boot hill under six foot of dirt. I know. My deputies had charge, and the doctor examined Dan Jagger. Yes. Whatever he said, don't matter now. Only one thing that interests me right now. What is that? You. And what about me? Sam Hill, are you? What's your name and where'd you come from? If you figure on hanging around this neck of the woods, I'd admire to depotize you. I could use a man with a brain for thinking up schemes like you got. I don't expect to be around here alone. Then what? Let's say that good friends of mine suffered greatly because of the Jagger gang. I promised to do all that I could to smash that gang. Well, we can say that... What the? The prisoner. He's on the floor there. Get this bar door open. Get to him. What's happened anyhow? I swore I'd come back and I'd done so. Dan Jagger! He's riding away from the back of the jail. Hurry, open this door. I am! Do what you can for that prisoner. I'm going after Dan Jagger. Or whoever it was, that threw that knife. All right, so let's get going. Hello, Silver, away! I know. I went after Dan Jagger, but I couldn't find him. No. You did not leave trail? It was dark. I couldn't see tracks. I thought I went in the same direction he did, but I didn't overtake him. Oh, what a strange thing happened here. It was Dan Jagger who stabbed Sid. You go back to jail? Yes. Sid was dead. A knife had been plunged into him through the barred window. Maybe other fellow do it. Dan Jagger didn't want any mistake about who killed Sid. He left things outside the window. Things tell her that he wore when he was buried. He didn't come back from grave. And he couldn't have done that. And yet, every bit of evidence points to the fact that he did. A 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. I'll continue our story. Dan Jagger returned from the dead to murder the man who had convicted him. And the Lone Ranger was unable to follow the killer. He and Tonto returned to their camp. All night long they sat beside the campfire, discussing every possibility in the case. Then, as the first tinge of gray appeared in the eastern sky. Dawn, Tonto. Perhaps we go to the jail together. You might be able to pick up the trail of the killer. Tonto try. It's the only thing I know how to do. We can't find Jagger's trail. And there's one thing left for us. What that? Another man must be hanged in the same way Dan Jagger was. Here, Silver. Yes, Count? We'll put out this fire. We'll leave the things here as they are. We'll be coming back to this camp. You'll wear a mask now? No, Kimisami. And I'll keep on this disguise. I won't wear the mask for this job. Come on, Silver. The people of the town were terror-stricken and kept to their houses as much as possible. Those who had served in the Jagger's jury felt that there was no power on earth to combat the thing that had killed Sid. Sheriff Standish felt the same way. And in desperation, he summoned the doctor to his office. The thing I want to speak about, Potter, is this. You checked on Jagger, didn't you? Yes, I did, sir. Found he was dead. Hello, Kim. I've been doctor around here for good many years. When I say a man's dead, is it likely I'd be wrong? Anyhow, dead or alive, wasn't he buried? That's what was told me. Even if he wasn't dead, he would be by the time night came. No argument about that. You know what I think? What? It wasn't Jagger at all. Not Jagger that was hanged? Jagger was hanged all right, but it wasn't him that came back to kill poor Sid. That's wrong. It was Jagger. There's all kinds of proof of that. I tell you, Potter, Jagger is alive. It can't be. But he is. He's got to be. Is there any track outside the cell window? No, no track at all. The ground wouldn't take a track. How about tracks near the grave? Well, there too. The ground's hard-packed from like a rain. Hey, might of yard. Might of yard. Can't figure it out at all. You're sure he was dead, though? I am. Ever hear of a man coming back to life? Never in all my experience. Ever read of a case like that? Nothing. It was never proved. That's what I wanted to ask you. Sure. You sent for me? Oh, yes. Come in, Belden. Close the door. Anything new on Sid's murder? Nope. How are you, Doc? You just can be expected, Belden. Belden, I sent for you to speak about the hanging of Dan Jagger. You fixed the rope and took charge of that. That's right. You're sure there wasn't no slip-up? I'm sure of it. Oh, you ought to know, hadn't I? I reckon you ought to. Is that all you wanted of me? Well, no, Tato. You see, Belden, there'll be another hanging coming off real soon. Another? I didn't know about that. Who's to hang? Oh, it ain't nothing much. Only that I'm working on the lead to get Jagger again. You want me to round up some of that? Yeah, I'll file one sum of the boys to help me trailing. But you said that... I said there wasn't tracks to be seen. Yes, that's what you said. There's other ways to trail besides tracks. There's a redskin in town that'll help me. Redskin? Uh-huh. Curious critter, too. Where'd he come from? Who is he? Stranger to both of you. But I happen to know about him. He'll start out with me right after dark. I'll follow him with some men, and I've got a hunch he can do more in bloodhounds. Eh, he wouldn't take stock in a redskin's word. Don't do no harm to follow him. He'll either lead us to something or to nothing. If the first is the case, well and good. And if it ain't, we ain't lost nothing by trying him out. How can a redskin follow a trail any better than one of us? Sometimes these redskins have a sort of uncanny knack of doing things. Anyhow, we're going to see what he can show us. When do you stare? Tonight. After dark? Yep, after dark. Hello, Sheriff. Ooh, howdy, boys. You want him to see us? Come on, come right in. I'll talk to you all at once. What sort of a meeting is this? These are the boys that served on the hanging jury. Why don't they have a talk with them? We're all sure enough scared, Sheriff, that the way that J.G. kept his threat, it'll likely be us he'll come to get next. Or our families. Find yourself someplace to set, boys. That's all I wanted of you, Doc. Well, I'll be going then. Bye. Bye, Belden. That is, uh... I'll let you know if there's anything else. Well, all right. Goodbye. Now, boys, I figured that all of you men that served on the jury would be a little fidgety. Yeah, don't tell half of it, Sheriff. It likely would be plum uneasy at home tonight. Yep. That's why I thought you'd sooner be where I'm going. Where? Following a trail. Whose trail? Why, the killer's, of course. Jagger? Maybe Jagger, maybe not. At any rate, I got a notion that when we start out from the window that Sid got killed at, we'll start on a trail that'll end with another hanging. Are you all with me? Doc! All set now, Lieutenant? That's right. What about your friend with a mask? Ready to. I don't know about this scheme of yours and his, but there ain't nothing I can think of that sounds better. Who colors over there? Those men are the men that made up the jury. Oh. I can trust every one of them. They didn't have any doubt on that score. I'm good. How about Potter and Belden? Did you follow them after I talked to them this morning? Uh-huh. I'll follow them. Did they go anywhere? Talked to anyone? Then talk to a three-puller. Not leave town. All right, then. We may as well get started. Hey, gents! Down door's ready to start out. He'll have to go on foot and slow. That'll make it easier to follow them. That's right. Now, if we find the man that killed Sid, we won't waste no time at all. We'll hang him right at sunrise. Good. Go ahead, Tonneau. Start training. Tonneau took the lead. The men who followed him were unable to see the clues that showed him the trail. How's he know where to go? If he leads to anything, I'll take my hat off to him. Better keep quiet. That's right. Save the talk. Keep one hand on your gun. You'll never come down. Tonneau let the man away from the town and toward a hill. He crossed a small rise, then headed for Neroio. Remember, boys, don't shoot unless I give the word. All right, sir. It seems like we're getting close now. The engine's holding his hand up. Wants us to stop. Well, Tonneau? Hell yeah. Just a head and a brush. He is, huh? All right, mister. Come out with your hands higher. We'll come in to get you. That shot was just a warning. Hold the fire. Someone's eyes. I'm coming out. Come slow and keep your hands up. By Juniper the Red Skin, done it. Me, take horse, take gun. I don't know how you located me, Cheryl. And that Indian followed my trail. He's good. He followed it, stranger. And we are taking you in. You killed Sid. Don't deny it. You done it. Ain't that the case? How could I have made you think it was Dan Sager if I'd been the murderer? Hey, you see? He knows all about it. That proves his guilt. Let him take more than you'll say, so to prove anything. We ain't figuring on wasting time with you. Oh, no one come back from the dead after all, huh? It wasn't Dan Sager that done the knife, huh? You all seem to have things pretty well subtle in your mind. There's no use for me to deny anything. Not a bit of use. Not a bit of use. He's about to go with you. What's your guess? Just mount up and don't make it ice for it. Ride slow toward town. Very well. You can confess, Dan Ratch, and help us so you can hang your son up. Confess to what? To what do you think? To the murderous hit, of course. I'll hang first. Well, that boy should soon have hanged and confessed. By thunder we'll sure as blaze as a comedy. Daybreak found the men on the jury and a number of the townspeople gathered at the hanging tree. Potto appeared nervous in contrast to his usual calm. The sheriff, too, was tense and anxious. The captured man, sitting on the powerful white horse, was silent and allowed himself to be led by Belden and several others to a place beneath the noose. If anyone thought it odd that the sheriff would be agreeable to a hanging without a trial, no comment was made. All right, mister. I'll fix the noose now. Go ahead. You got anything to say before you hang? Nothing. Belden, the same way you fixed Jagger. Get it? What about Doc? He's no fool. The boys for the burial? All set. What's holding it up? Just have a little trouble with the noose, that's all. Let the hanging proceed. All right. Silver leaped ahead. The rope jerk taut, and the lean, strong body of the Lone Ranger dropped and swung in the gray light of dawn. Then he was cut down, and Doc Potter moved close. Hurry it up, Doc. Make your examination. Is he done first? A little more with it. That'll make me sleep a heap better. I'm glad there wasn't no truth to the fact that Jagger come back from the dead. Me, too. Gentlemen, well, my capacity is cornered. I officially pronounce this man dead. Step up, boys, and take away the remains. There will be none. Take away the remains. The doctor's lying. I'm no more dead than any of you. All set, boys. Get him covered. You wanted the cattle gang. Well, capture the deputy Belden. He vicks the rope around my chest beneath my arms instead of around my neck. I haven't doubled crosses. Cover him, boys. Capture the doctor. Who lied when he said that I was dead. He's going, look who this ain't done. Come on, Doc. We got your flat footed. Capture the man who made up the burial committee, and it would have buried an empty coffin, the same as they did in Jagger's case. We got you. And the first that makes a move for guns gets shot. We got you all covered. Now I'll do the talking. That there stranger is the lone ranger. He ain't masked, but his face is covered with a disguise. He figured out how Jagger was up and about and tried it out. If Belden hadn't thought he was one of the gang he'd have put the rope around him right, then we would have had inner fear. But Belden fell for the trick, sold the dock. Wait, let me talk. If I had to do it, I didn't have no choice. There'll be some hangings of the cattle thieves, but there'll also be some of you that'll get off easy. Them, the turned states' evidence. I will, I will. Now that you have the whole gang, I'll tell you all again. Jagger wouldn't let me live if I hadn't helped out. Wait, if Doc is going to Scrillard, I'll talk first. I don't hang to the hang. Crush the pack of them off to jail. We'll see who can talk the most. Main thing is to locate Jagger's hangout. I'll tell what he's hiding out here. Take him away, boys, while I sank the Rome Rangers. I'll silver away!