Gordon, about to implicate Kirby and his associates, is
killed by a shot from outside.
Pandemonium breaks loose, Wolf and his pack rush in, Jim
shoots out the lights and he and Tombstone race to Jackson’s barn. They find Jackson lying on the floor and…
Okay, a couple of things:
1) Kirby (James Blaine), Davis (Monte Blue) and Gordon (William Hall) did not “celebrate” Benton’s (Dick Foran) alleged death. They did have a few drinks, but it was probably five o’clock somewhere.
2) Gordon cannot implicate Kirby and his associates…because he has just the one associate: Davis.
3) I apologize for not knowing that the livery stable guy (Slim Whitaker) actually had a name in “Jackson.” (I think I called him “Slim” last week because of the actor.)
And now that that’s out of the way, you’ll no doubt recall
that Jim and Tombstone (Buck Jones) were ambushed in the barn by three more
no-goodniks on the payroll of Joseph Kirby—the actors are not identified at the
IMDb but the characters are Green, Fisk and Berry—and during the ensuing
display of fierce fisticuffs, a lantern is carelessly knocked over, setting the
structure ablaze. (Damn it, we can’t
have nice things…)
If you think our heroes are going to perish in a fiery stable hell, then you are at the wrong blog, friends and neighbors. Jim manages to get Tombstone out of the burning livery and across the street to some steps…where their compadres Pancho (Leo Carrillo), Borax Bill (Guinn “Big Boy” Williams) and Tex (Glenn Strange) join them.
JIM: Where do you think we’ve been?
(An identified man runs up to the
group)
MAN: Hey! There’s a lot of horses movin’ around in the
corral in the back of the barn—give me a hand!
PANCHO: Sure, I’ll give you my
hand—let’s went!
(Pancho and the others rush off)
TOMBSTONE: Hey, Jim…I got a great idea…
JIM: What now?
TOMBSTONE: Let’s start that fight
all over again…
JIM: Listen, Tomb…if you’re that
rested up, we’ve got other work to
do…
TOMBSTONE: Work?
JIM: Yeah…let’s round up the boys
and get back to the mine as quick as we can…
In the meantime, Davis, Kirby and Kirby’s hired gun Wolf
Reade (Charles Bickford) commiserate in the back office of Kirby’s Y’all Come
Back Saloon…
KIRBY (to Wolf): Why didn’t you plug Benton…while you had a good chance?
DAVIS: Well, I did my part…I saved all our necks when I shot Gordon…
“And that entitles me to the last cookie for dessert…”
DAVIS: …then Wolf lets Benton get away!
WOLF: Aw, stop whimpering like a coupla coyote pups…you got nothing to worry
about…my men will get Benton…
BUTCH (entering Kirby’s office):
Wolf! Benton wiped out the men you had
planted in the barn! He set fire to her
and hightailed out of town!
KIRBY: You gotta get Benton,
Wolf…if it’s the last thing you do!
WOLF: I’ll get ‘em…now listen…just
plant some other charge on Benton that he’ll have a hard time getting out of! Now it’s up to you two to see Judge Knox and
swear out a warrant! Butch, take Trigger
and Rusty…see Haskell at Mud Lake…tell him I want six of his best men!
Well, this isn’t a positive sign for the local economy. Reade is hiring out-of-town goons. As Butch and Trigger rush out of the office
to do Wolf’s bidding, Reade snarls at Kirby and Davis: “We’ll get him this
time…”
A scene shift reveals that it is now daylight, and we’re
back at the Lost Aztec Mine…where co-owner Mary Morgan (Jean Brooks), the
undeclared sweetheart of Jim Benton, is supervising the drones that are working
hard to make her and Jim filthy, stinking rich.
She consults with an assistant foreman named “Salty,” played by
B-western/serial veteran Edmund Cobb, because Noah Beery, Jr.—who appeared
earlier in this serial as “Smokey”—has vanished without a trace. (I’m not making this up, by the way. Glenn
Strange has more screen time in this than Noah, and he doesn’t even get to
pose for that group picture I put up before every chapter write-up.)
SALTY: We’ll be pullin’ plenty of high-grade ore out of that tunnel before Jim and the boys get back…
MARY: Well…I wish they’d get back soon…
SALTY: You ain’t thinking they won’t…?
MARY: They won’t…unless Jim can
clear himself of that murder charge…
SALTY: Aw, he will, all right…and
then all his troubles will be hog-tied…
I think I just found a new e-mail closing. “May all your troubles be hog-tied…”
MARY: Not all of them, Salty…we
gotta get enough ore into Panamint to buy off Kirby’s note…
SALTY: Shucks…we can do that in a
month with the way the men are workin’ now…
MARY: Yeah…if Blake doesn’t stir up
any more trouble…
Blake! That vichyssoise… Apparently Kirby has once again infiltrated
the human resource rolls of JimMar Mining with his own men (you’ll recall
similar troubles with “Buck Hansen” in Chapters
8 and 9),
and their sworn duty is to interfere with the company by keeping them from
mining enough ore to pay off the note.
(Also, too: they’ve been taking unauthorized work breaks and there are
some boxes of staples missing.)
MARY (getting up); Salty, I’m gonna
fire him…
SALTY: You can’t!
MARY: Why?!!
“He’s already had his three-month evaluation…if you let him
go now, it’ll have to be for cause.”
SALTY: Because he’s got a heap of
friends among the men…we don’t want them all
to quit…
Oh, I seriously doubt Blake has that many friends. As if it
were scripted, a group of men ride up on the mine shaft lift…and one of them
explains to Mary that they’re on another work break because they’ve had a
meeting with the odious Blake, played by Don Rowan.
BLAKE: It means I’m quittin’! I’m all through, see? Unless Benton gives me and the rest of the
boys here twice as much dough as
we’re gettin’ now!
MINER: He’s right! Lower the lift…more men want to come up!
MARY: Hold it! Now wait a minute, men…the least you can do is wait until Jim gets
back! And as for you, Blake…
BLAKE: Just a minute! (To the group) Listen, men…we’re fools to be workin’ for this kind of
money…what about the ore we took out of this mine?!!
Blake and Company would appear to be examples of what many
of my conservative Facebook chums describe as “union agitators.” But we’ll not have to mix with their kind for
much longer (the agitators, I mean, not my chums) because Jim and the others
have come riding up, and Mary runs over to meet them. They’ll take care of this Bolshevist
insurrection, I’ll bet!
BLAKE: All you gotta do is stick with me! I know things you men don’t know! All you gotta do is put a little pressure on Benton and he’ll give in! And unless Benton…
JIM (interrupting him): Unless
Benton what?
BLAKE: Listen…we’re takin’ a lot of
high-grade ore out of here and we ain’t gettin’ our share…
JIM: You’re being paid a salary to
do a job…that’s all you’re entitled to…
“So get back there and start greeting Walmart shoppers, ya
goldbrick…”
BLAKE: Yeah? Well, when Kirby gets control of this mine…
JIM: Oh—so Kirby sent you down here, huh?
(To the rest of the group) Men…if I can prove that Joe Kirby sent this man down here to break up this camp
and get control of this mine—will you go back to work? (The men murmur in agreement) All right…every man that sticks with me will
get a bonus as soon we get out of
debt…now come clean, Blake—who sent ya?
Asked as to who he’s stooging for, Blake admits that he’s on
Kirby’s payroll. “On your way!” orders
Jim as he grabs him by the back of the collar and aims him for the exits. (“Adios!” adds Pancho, while Borax chimes in
with “Vamoose!”) Tombstone tells the
rest of the crowd that what Jim said about the bonuses still goes, and they
head back to their menial mining tasks.
Jim then instructs Pancho and Tex to round up the rest of Blake’s friends
and order them to clear out, prompting Pancho to again refer to the malcontents
as “alligators,” because he secretly wants to be Leo Gorcey.
JIM: Hey, Salty… (Salty walks over) How are things down below?
SALTY: Fine…we’ve uncovered a vein
in the old Aztec that’ll run…better than fifteen hunnerd to the ton…
JIM: Say—that’s rich ore…if we had
some more miners we’d soon pay off that debt…
TOMBSTONE: Wait a minute,
Jim—what’s the matter with Johnson? He’s
not running a full crew…
JIM: Hey…that’s a good idea,
Tomb…let’s go…
So Tombstone, Jim and Mary ride off to meet with this
mysterious “Johnson”…and as they stop at a ridge to decide which trail is the
best to follow, they’re spotted from below by Butch, Trigger and Rusty (Ethan
Laidlaw). Butch orders his fellow
henchies to duck back down where the trail narrows in order for them to ambush
our heroes when they come a-ridin’ by.
As the bad dudes hide, they stir up a cloud of dust that does not escape
the notice of Jim Benton, CSI Panamint. Tombstone suggests that he take a look, and
he’s able to sneak up on those rough men—he then doubles back to give Jim the
skinny:
JIM: Who was it?
TOMBSTONE: Aw, Butch and a couple
of Wolf’s gang—they’re layin’ for us!
(Handing a shotgun to Mary) Can you handle a cannon?
“Sure…but why are you giving me this shotgun?”
JIM: What’s the big idea?
TOMBSTONE: Get down off your
horse…you’ll find out! You better, too,
Miss…
Miss? You forget her
name already, old timer? A scene shift
finds Butch and the others waiting for our heroes to ride by, as Mary walks up
to them bold as brass with the shotgun.
They pay no attention to Mary (well, she’s a girl) but are puzzled when
three horses go by sans riders. “There
are the horses,” observes Butch. “Where
are the riders?”
Tombstone and Jim are right above them. “Right behind you, mi amigos!” gloats Tomb, as he jumps down to disarm the men. Our heroes put the baddies on their horses, and tell them “never you mind!” when Butch asks where they’re taking them.
Pancho dismisses his ignorant friend, telling him “All you
know about the gold is what you got in your tooths!” (Oh, funny Pancho.)
SALTY: You think that’s good ore…wait till you see what
we take out of this new vein we’re opening up—here’s a sample…
BORAX (after striking it with a
pickaxe) Don’t none of it look too good to me…
The four men look up to see Tomb, Jim and Mary ride in with
the captured Butch, Trigger and Rusty—or “the three wolves coming” as Pancho
describes them. “Let’s went!” enthuses
Borax.
PANCHO: Well! You catch all that Wolf’s gang, huh? Now we’re gonna have a big hangin’ fiesta…
JIM: Not yet, Pancho…we’re gonna
put ‘em in the icebox, let cool ‘em off a little bit… (To Tex) Keep ‘em
well-guarded…
PANCHO: Ha ha! Didn’t I told you we were gonna catch you
sometime, eh, Butch?
BUTCH (angrily): Aw, shut up, or I’ll…
Take them away, they bore me. Well, just because Butch and the others were
foolish enough to get themselves captured doesn’t mean that trouble isn’t still
far away. It’s in the form of Wolf
Reade, who, with Davis, Dirk (Roy Barcroft) and a few other nameless thugs come
riding up close to the mining camp. They
are stopped by henchman Pete (Dick Alexander), apparently out on a mission to
see if he could locate any relatives under rocks.
PETE: Haskell claims Butch, Trigger
and Rusty never got to his place…
WOLF: They must have!
PETE: I don’t think so…I rode back
by the funeral range and found Rusty’s hat…near Big Rock… (As Wolf examines the
hat) There were a lot of horses millin’ around there, and I picked up Butch’s
gun, too!
WOLF: Maybe they ran into some of
Benton’s riders…
DAVIS: You’ll likely find them over
at his camp…as prisoners…
WOLF: Well, they won’t be there
long…come on!
The bad guy contingent rides off in the direction of the mining camp, and in the next scene we see Salty carrying a keg of gunpowder towards one of the mining caves. He asks Borax to take it the rest of the way, prompting Bill to reply “Whaddya think we are, pack mules?” (“No…your ears are shorter.”) Salty explains that he and another man (also carrying a powder keg) have got more work to do at another section of the mine, and so Bill and Tex carry the two kegs into a tunnel. Inside the cave, two other miners are digging with pickaxes; Tex tells them it’s deep enough and Bill opens one of the powder kegs with his foot. When Tex takes a shovel to open the second keg, Bill demonstrates his foot technique again.
Out of sight on a nearby ridge, Wolf and the outlaws ride
up…
WOLF: All right, Davis…take your
deputies and serve that warrant on Benton…that’ll bring them out in the open…
DAVIS: What are you gonna do?
WOLF: When you’re arguin’, we’ll
sneak up and open fire…
DAVIS: Well…give me a chance to get
in the clear before you start your
battle…
WOLF: Don’t be afraid…
I sort of get the feeling he’s not being sincere with
that. The two teams split up, one in the
direction of Benton and Company, the other toward a stockade that’s holding
Butch, Trigger and Rusty…and that’s being guarded by Salty (I guess this is the
other work he had to do). With
established footage of Salty being a proper guard, the scene then shifts to Jim
and Mary as they head toward the cave into which Tex and Bill carried the
powder. Mary spots Davis and a pair of
deputies riding up in the distance.
JIM: You better go in and tell the
boys to come out and be ready for trouble… (He walks over to where Davis and
his men are pulling up on their horses) Hello, Davis…what’s on your mind?
DAVIS: Benton…in the name of the
law, I arrest you in the matter of…
JIM: Wait a minute! On whose authority are you making this
arrest?
DAVIS: I have the authority as a
deputy marshal of Panamint…sworn in by the town marshal! These two men are my
deputies…
JIM: Ah hah…aren’t you aware that
the town marshal’s authority does not extend beyond the city limits?
While inside the mine…
MARY: Davis and some men just rode
up…Jim wants you…
BORAX: Davis?
TEX: What does that hombre want?
BORAX: Trouble! Time’s a-wastin’!
You tell ‘em, Snuffy!
Mary, Borax, Tex and the other two men race out of the mine and rush
over to help Jim…
JIM: I’ll give you just three minutes to get off of here…
DAVIS: You’ll regret this, Benton! There’s
still law in this country!
“The best that money can buy!”
JIM: That’s what I intend to prove
before I’m through—now go on!
Davis and the deputies ride off “into the clear,” and that’s when Reade and his men make their move. There is a lot of shooting, and one thing I can’t quite figure out in this serial is why so many shots fired never hit anybody or cut them down. (You’d think an innocent bystander would take a slug even if the men weren’t all poor marksmen.) During the shootout, a careless Salty is too engrossed in missing the bad guys with his rifle to notice that Butch has grabbed him through the wooden fence; he knocks out the sentry, and he along with Trigger and Rusty make a break for it. “I knew Wolf would show up!” burbles Butch. (“Wolf is my friend!”)
As the massive exchange of gunfire continues, Jim directs
Mary to duck back into the cave…a move that does not go unnoticed by Butch and Trigger,
who give chase as the two enter the cave.
Jim tells Mary they need to head for the exit because he’s out of ammo
and “they’re right behind us!” Indeed
they are—Butch tells Trigger: “The light’s behind us…so he can see us better’n
we can see him…”
Jim and Mary wait until Butch and Trigger reach a certain part
of the cave, then Jim attempts to take on both men in a manly display of
fighting. We’re pretty much at the end
of the chapter this week, so I probably don’t need to tell you what happens:
there’s fighting, a gunshot knocks a torch off the wall and it lands on the
powder…
…and we pretty much wait for the place to blow up real good while Jim continues fighting.
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