The Laughing Cowboy is a digest-paperback published by Grant Hughes in 1949 and features cover art by James McConnell. The cover story spans pages 3 to 75 and carries the Bert Forde byline; the filler is The Black Riders by N. Wesley Firth, covering pages 76 to 95. Both stories were actually authored by Norman Firth, a veritable fiction-factory who died young in 1949.
Chuck Dolman and his friend Hank are riding toward a distant ranch when they spy a small group of riders and a man on a stretcher, apparently wounded. Chuck sends Hank onward to the ranch as planned, while he rides out to the wounded party, to lend first aid.
Hank arrives at the ranch and is treated as a suspicious character by the foreman, Jerry Sadler, along with the rest of the hands. They aren’t keen to this mysterious stranger’s arrival but when Hank notes his pard rode off to inspect a wounded party due to arrive any time, all hands begin to worry. Then a pretty young shapely female makes an appearance. Her name is Gale Allen, and she is mortified when the stretcher arrives. Her father is on that stretcher, and he isn’t moving. He’s dead, thrown from his horse, and struck his head. Chuck smells foul-play.
Chuck and Hank apply to work for the ranch, now being the property of Gale Allen, only Chuck secretly informs Gale the duo aren’t cowpunchers; they are present at the request of Gale’s father, the deceased “Pop” Allen. Gale’s father believed his fairly new neighbor (Josh Kent) was trying to buy his land for a sinister reason. That reason turns out to be oil. And Chuck Dolman is an oil man, who also happens to be ranch-savvy and very handy with a six-gun. Chuck agrees to inspect Pop Allen’s property and ropes his good friend Hank to come along for the ride.
Foremost: Chuck suspects that foreman Jerry Sadler is behind Pop Allen’s death, and the assorted raids on the property and cows, etc.
Second: add to this fact that Jerry was the former foreman of the neighboring ranch trying to buy out the Allen’s.
Third: Jerry suggested the late Pop Allen make out a legal will. He did.
Fourth: Chuck is dead certain that Jerry is making eyes at Gale to encourage her to marry him, thereby securing rights legally to the ranch!
No new plot here, right? Right! Which is why Firth is keen to pull the rug out from under the reader or throw in additional twists.
Riding to the neighbor’s ranch, Chuck confronts Josh Kent. The man looks like a phantom of himself, all worn and haggard. The ranch is in shambles. No hands are present, nor have there been in a long time, likely since Sadler quit and switched allegiances. Chuck’s convinced that Josh couldn’t scrape two cents together. Clearly someone else is at the back of the purchase intent. Interrogating the man gets Chuck nowhere, and then a mystery man appears: a laughing, maniacal cowboy with a swifter drawing hand than Chuck may possess. The unnamed masked bandit gives Chuck the boot, despite the opportunity to gun him down.
Chuck later follows Jerry to Josh’s place one day and listening at the window, overhears enough to prove Jerry’s guilt. After Jerry rides away, Chuck catches up to him on horseback and confesses he overheard the trio’s discussion. Jerry in turn unburdens his soul, coming clean.
Oil was indeed found on Josh’s property, but the main deposit is on the Allen ranch. While drunk in town, Josh flapped his gums in the wrong company and signed half the rights to his property away. The buyer (Stemson) brought in a gang. Jerry had been working an honest living on Josh’s place, keeping a low profile, for he himself was a wanted man, for murder.
Riding in with the gang is Jerry’s brother Sam, who is perhaps a wee bit touched in the head, but Jerry swears isn’t bad. Just goes into mental fits. Seems when Sam was younger, he tried to rescue someone from a runaway carriage and got run over for his chivalrous efforts.
But when the gang goes too far, Jerry breaks away from the Allen ranch and rides to Josh’s ranch. Chuck rides after him, only to arrive too late. Josh is badly beaten. Sam isn’t as lucky. Jerry has beaten his own brother to death. Only, Chuck is certain that Jerry isn’t aware that his brother died. Sam clearly shows signs of recently ceased bleeding from his wounds, which means he was unconscious and alive when Jerry left him.
Chuck knows Jerry Sadler’s next destination will be to ride into town and confront Stemson. Riding hard, Chuck interferes in the death-match between Jerry and Stemson. This unfortunately enables the villain to shoot Jerry dead. Then an outlaw posse rides into town wanting to take Jerry away with them, on the old charges of murder but Jerry isn’t going anywhere. He’s already got a date with Boot Hill.
Chuck rides back to the ranch, explains the truth to Gale about Jerry Sadler and so forth; fast-forward, Chuck’s assisted in drilling for oil and a geyser bursts forth. Gale is a very rich young lady and the pair lock lips.
The filler story, The Black Riders, is what one would expect from Firth’s humorous abilities. A sleazy little man by the name of Ephraim Frosham rides to the Bar B ranch and meets with rancher Cal Carter. He’s keen on selling insurance, protection insurance. Cal isn’t the least bit interested. He’s already got insurance. Then Frosham infers that wherever he goes, selling insurance, later follows the outlaws known as The Black Riders. Cal realizes that Frosham is a shakedown artist. Cal can’t prove that Frosham is affiliated with The Black Riders, purely on the coincidence that they ride and raid every property Frosham visits that fails to apply for his $500/month insurance!
Sure enough, he gives the man the boot, and the next he knows, his barn is burned to the ground. His neighbors suffer similarly, and one by one pay up. Cal holds out, then rides into town, and meeting Frosham in his rented room, promises to beat the man up should any further harm come to his ranch. Frosham assures him that The Black Riders have means of dealing with Cal Carter.
Carter assigns his men to herd the cows up near the ranch, then watch the ranch and stock overnight in shifts. Nothing occurs all night. Next day, they herd them to the nearest water hole only to discover it is poisoned. The next hole is also poisoned! They’ll have to push the cows afar for water.
Carter is beyond rage. Frosham has vanished from town, but he couldn’t be far. The next nearest town with a hotel is 80 miles away. So he must be holed-up with the notorious Black Riders. Trying hard to discover a means to capture them and beat Frosham mercilessly, he’s bemused to see young Hank with a stray mutt, found on the range. They don’t permit dogs on their ranch, but then Carter learns something interesting about the dog. It loves to lap at pools of tar. Hank always pulls the dog away, realizing that tar can’t possibly be any good for a dog to lap up, but the dog simply can’t stay away.
And that hankering for tar gives Carter the idea. Permitting one of the large hay stacks to go unguarded at night, he drenches the surrounding area with pools of tar. The horseback riders must ride through the tar. Sure enough, the hay is set ablaze! Carter obtains his men and they set the dog to follow the scent of the tar embedded in the horse’s hooves. They follow the dog into the hills and eventually discover The Black Rider’s temporary residence.
A gun battle ensues, both sides lose lives, but Carter’s got numbers in his favor; plus, he’s sent men to circle the bandits and shoot from above. It’s not long before they surrender and Carter nabs Frosham. The gang are sent to prison and the mutt is permitted to remain on the ranch forever, despite their rules of No Dogs Allowed, which probably ought to have been the story’s title.