The Ghost Mine

 

cover art by Till Goodman

Four Color #47 (July 1944--writer and artist unknown) keeps Gene Autry busy right from the first page, when he runs across a stagecoach that was robbed of the gold shipment it was carrying.

In fact, the poor driver is robbed every single time the stage is carrying gold, even though those shipments are supposed to be a secret. Someone has inside information.

It's a situation destined to activate Gene's Chronic Hero Syndrome and he's soon hanging out at a local saloon in Goldtown, looking for information. He doesn't discover anything definite about the robberies, but he does meet a big guy named Bull Riggs, who is good with a whip. Gene and Bull spend a few panels showing off their respective skill.

This, of course, foreshadows a later event in the story, but leaves Gene no closer to finding the bad guys. Soon after, though, a young lady named Milly Nolan arrives in town. She has her father's will, which leaves her the local gold mine. But a guy named Bill Drake claims Milly's dad sold HIM the mine before he died.

That mine, by the way, had seemed to be worthless, but Bill claims to have struck a new vein, making it profitable. 

Both Gene and Milly think Bill is lying and forged the new deed. They plan to get a handwriting expert to prove this.

Of course, the deed IS forged. Bill's scheme is to steal gold from the stage, melt it down and claim he's digging it out of the mine. But he also realizes that the jig will be up as soon as an expert examines the forged signatures on the deed. It's time to load up the gold and leave town.

To gain time, he and his minions (which includes whip-expert Bull) kidnap Milly. Bill doesn't want to commit a murder if he doesn't have to, so he locks her in a room inside the mine. When Gene investigates, he's captured as well and locked in another room. 

Gene's tied up, but the bad guys didn't bother tying up Milly. She crawls through a ventilation shaft to free Gene, who then prys open the locked door with a barrell stave. He takes Milly back to town, borrows a pistol and chases the bad guys. During the chase, Bull drops his whip. Gene recovers it and uses it to catch the villains. 

"The Ghost Mine" is a good story. It's well-constructed--for instance, the ventilator shaft Milly uses to free Gene was mentioned previously, preventing it from being a deus ex machina. I suppose the foreshadowing with the whip contest in the bar was a little heavy-handed, but it was a neat scene nonetheless.

And I really like the art. The unknown artist effectively uses establishing shots to set up scenes and shifts his "camera" about in interesting ways. The night time scenes, especially when Molly is being kidnapped, are nicely atmospheric. "The Ghost Mine" is a worthy addition to Gene Autry's canon of adventures.

You can read this issue online HERE.

Next week, we'll visit with Spider Man and decide whether the Spider Mobile was awesome or just plain dumb.