Tuttle, W. C.
Books (35)
Magpie's Night-Bear
In the rugged hills of Western Montana, two prospecting partners settle into a rough cabin with little more than grit, a phonograph, and a talent for trouble. When an unexpected midnight visitor shatters their uneasy peace, tall-tale humor and frontier chaos collide in classic Western fashion. W. C. Tuttle’s “Magpie’s Night-Bear” blends comic suspense, rustic dialect, and early twentieth-century adventure storytelling in a lively tale of wilderness misadventure.
A Bull Movement in Yellow Horse
In the unruly frontier town of Yellow Horse, two wandering cowboys stumble into a spectacle far larger than they bargained for. When a stranded circus elephant named Frederick the First enters their lives, curiosity, bravado, and bad judgment set off a chain of comic Western chaos. W. C. Tuttle’s lively tale blends slapstick adventure, frontier tall-talk, and old-time magazine humor in a boisterous portrait of men, beasts, and towns pushed well beyond their limits.
All Wool
Hired as unlikely shepherds in an unfamiliar stretch of range country, cowpunchers Zeb Whitney and Ricky Saunders quickly learn that guarding three thousand sheep for top wages comes with reasons their easygoing boss failed to mention. A stray bullet, a vanished herder, and a sudden blast in the night convince them they've blundered into the middle of a simmering range war between cattlemen and sheep owners. Outgunned, out-supplied, and subsisting on half-cooked mutton, the two saddle-tramps answer each new calamity with wisecracks, card games, and a stubborn refusal to be run off. A rollicking frontier yarn of grit, gallows humor, and partnership tested by dust, dynamite, and the worst cooking west of the Rockies.
Derelicts Of The Hills
In the rugged hills north of Piperock, two grizzled prospectors scratch out a living between mesquite, dust, and dreams of a lucky strike. When Magpie Simpkins — dabbler in hypnotism, psychology, and communion with the spirits — returns from town head-over-boots in love with a blue-eyed waitress, his long-suffering partner Ike Harper braces for the worst. What follows is a tall tale of buckshot justice, bailing-wire suspenders, and the peculiar comedy that unfolds when a scientific loco sourdough decides to tie the knot. W. C. Tuttle spins a classic slice of pulp-era Western humor in the authentic cowboy dialect that made his Piperock yarns a staple of Adventure magazine.
For the Love of Annibel
When a theatrical producer arrives in the rough-and-tumble mining town of Piperock, Montana, she attempts to stage an ambitious play using local cowboys, prospectors, and townsfolk as her amateur cast. Narrator Ike Harper reluctantly watches as his partner Magpie Simpkins and the rest of the colorful community throw themselves into "For the Love of Annibel," a melodrama that promises culture and refinement to the frontier. But between rivalries over leading roles, a dubious choice of livestock, and the volatile personalities of the Piperock residents, the production quickly spirals toward unforgettable disaster.
Cows is Cows
In the dusty reaches of Yellow Rock County, cattle are vanishing faster than Sheriff Magpie Simpkins can roll a smoke, and the local ranchers have run out of patience. When a hired detective arrives to hunt the rustlers and a tall, sermonizing stranger calling himself a 'Bringer of Light' wanders into town, the trouble multiplies in unexpected ways. Narrated in the salty drawl of emergency deputy Ike Harper, this classic frontier yarn from W. C. Tuttle blends tall-tale humor, mistaken identity, and the rough justice of the open range. A short, comic Western from the golden age of pulp adventure.
Fifty-Fifty with Bonnie
When a letter goes astray and two refined Eastern ladies arrive at the Seven-A ranch with six trunks and grand expectations, the ornery cowhands of Hank Padden's outfit find themselves on the receiving end of a misunderstanding nobody bargained for. Chuck Warner, a bow-legged jokester with a gift for stretching the truth, can't resist spinning a few tall tales to amuse himself and rattle his trail-mates—particularly the long, slow-witted Swede left in charge while the boss is away. As schemes pile atop schemes and the prospect of a dozen marriageable girls looms on the horizon, the lonesomeness of ranch life gives way to a roaring tangle of mistaken identities, hollered conversations, and sagebrush mischief. Set on the Montana range of a bygone era, this rollicking yarn from pulp-fiction favorite W. C. Tuttle delivers cowboy comedy at full gallop.
Honest to Doughgod
In W. C. Tuttle’s comic Western tale, three musically inclined cowpunchers from the Cross-J find their loyalties tested when a new schoolteacher arrives in Paradise. Hen Peck, Muley Bowles, and Telescope Tolliver stumble through romance, rivalry, poker, poetry, and frontier misunderstandings with more enthusiasm than wisdom. Told in lively cowboy dialect, this archival Western farce captures the rough humor, tall-tale charm, and antic spirit of early twentieth-century magazine fiction.
Magpie—Diplomat
When drifters Magpie Simpkins and Ike Harper ride into the frontier settlement of Pinto, they find its mayor, chief of police, and treasurer sitting forlorn on a pile of boulders—exiled from their own town by a scheme gone spectacularly wrong. What began as a clever fix to a civic problem has unraveled into a comedy of romantic deception, jealous wives, and loaded firearms. With Magpie's quick tongue and talent for back-country diplomacy, he attempts to untangle the mess—but peace, like gold, proves elusive on the frontier. A sharp and rollicking tale of frontier wit, marital chaos, and the perils of small-town politics, first published in Adventure magazine in July 1917.
Nerves of Iron
In the lawless desert town of Spotted Dog, two wandering prospectors and their burros stumble into a feud between blustering officials, nervous gunmen, and a reluctant new marshal with everything to prove. W. C. Tuttle’s comic Western tale blends frontier bravado, tall-tale humor, and mistaken reputations as cowardice, courage, and clever trickery collide on the dusty main street. Full of dialect, absurd danger, and sly reversals, this early twentieth-century story captures the rowdy spirit of pulp-era Western adventure.
Sixteen to One on Friday
Set against the rough-edged ranges and backroads of early twentieth-century Montana, this spirited Western follows two cowboys whose simple errand turns into a riot of misadventure. W. C. Tuttle blends frontier humor, political color, mistaken suspicion, and fast-moving action in a tale rich with dialect and comic timing. By turns sly, chaotic, and vividly atmospheric, this classic short story captures the exuberant unpredictability of life in a cattle-country town called Paradise.
The Hen-punchers of Piperock
In the dust-blown cow town of Piperock, two hungry cowpunchers turn a craving for ham and eggs into a wildly impractical business scheme. With razorback hogs, unruly hens, rival entrepreneurs, and a town full of sharp-tongued witnesses, W. C. Tuttle’s comic Western tale transforms frontier scarcity into high-spirited farce. Told in vivid dialect and bristling with slapstick misadventure, this archival short story captures the humor, appetite, and chaos of ranch-country life.
Jay Bird’s Judgement
Set in the rough country of the American West, this spirited frontier tale follows a ranch outfit whose search for a cook turns into a whirlwind of misunderstanding, gossip, and comic ambition. With dry wit, vivid ranch life, and a cast of unforgettable cowhands, W. C. Tuttle brings the open range to life in a story where practical problems quickly become social calamities. Blending humor, romance, and classic cowboy mischief, this early twentieth-century western captures the charm of tall-tale storytelling without losing its human touch. A lively period piece, it offers readers both laughter and a sharply observed portrait of ranch life on the range.
A Whizzer on Willer Creek
In the rough-edged cattle country of Willer Crick, two wandering cowboys ride straight into a feud-ridden range where family ties are tangled, tempers are quick, and trouble comes looking for strangers. Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens find themselves heirs to a disputed ranch, a mysterious legacy, and a hornet’s nest of frontier suspicion. Brimming with dry humor, hard riding, and Western grit, this lively tale captures the comic danger and outlaw charm of the early pulp frontier.
Helped by a Horse Doctor
In the rough-and-tumble frontier town of Piperock, cowpoke Ike Harper finds his partner Magpie Simpkins tangled up with a traveling stranger and a get-rich-quick scheme involving a dubious fraternal order called the Loyal Legion of Lizards. What begins with a bent gun barrel and a busted skull soon spirals into a wild chain of misadventures featuring secret handshakes, life-insurance pitches sold under gunfire, a quick-thinking horse doctor, and a goat with ambitions of its own. Equal parts tall tale and slapstick farce, W. C. Tuttle's yarn captures the drawl, grit, and gleeful absurdity of the Old West at its most ornery. A rollicking comedic Western first published in the pages of Adventure magazine, this Piperock story stands as a classic of pulp-era frontier humor.
Ike Harper’s Historical Holiday
In the rowdy frontier town of Piperock, a simple debate over where to hold the Fourth of July celebration spirals into glorious small-town chaos. When the question of who actually started the holiday ignites arguments among cowboys, a judge, a sheriff, and a saloon keeper — each more confident and more wrong than the last — narrator Ike Harper finds himself dragged into a madcap reenactment of Washington crossing the Delaware, complete with half-broke broncs, a mounted band, and an involuntary swim down the river. W. C. Tuttle's sharp comic ear captures the bluster and camaraderie of the Old West in a tale that proves one truth above all others: in Piperock, no holiday goes unpunished.
The Wisdom of the Ouija
In the lawless, laugh-filled mining town of Piperock, a mysterious “wee-gee” board turns idle curiosity into a full-blown public spectacle. As cowboys, shopkeepers, sheriffs, and self-styled spiritualists gather for messages from beyond the veil, old grudges and frontier foolishness begin to surface. W. C. Tuttle’s comic Western tale blends tall-talk narration, supernatural satire, and rowdy small-town mischief in a sharply drawn portrait of Yaller Rock County.
“Hashknife”—Philanthropist
Drifting into Badger City with empty pockets and loaded reputations, Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens find themselves mistaken for hired detectives, wanted outlaws, and dangerous troublemakers all at once. In a range country plagued by vanishing cattle, crooked officials, and old grievances, the pair’s dry wit and quick guns draw them into a mystery no honest cowman seems able to solve. Blending frontier humor, hardboiled Western action, and a sharp eye for rough justice, “Hashknife—Philanthropist” follows two reluctant do-gooders through a town where generosity can be as risky as gunplay.
Tippecanoe and Cougars Two
High in the mountains above Piperock, prospectors Ike Harper and Magpie Simpkins are minding their own business when a sputtering automobile climbs the road to their hillside cabin, carrying the most absent-minded pair the West has ever seen: "Tippecanoe" Seeley, a guide who can't remember his own boots, and Professor Aloysius Van Fleet, a bespectacled tenderfoot bent on filming wild cougars with a moving-picture camera. Add a long-suffering wife, a wide-eyed daughter, and a fastidious English lord to the party, and the stage is set for a tangle of ropes, claws, dust, and dialect-laced disaster. Narrated in the salty vernacular of a cowboy who has clearly seen too much, W. C. Tuttle's tall tale of the Montana high country is pure frontier slapstick from start to finish. First published in Adventure magazine in 1921, it remains a vintage gem of pulp-era Western humor.
Powder Law
In the brutal badlands of 1880 Montana, two drifting outsiders ride into a frontier where law has become a weapon and power belongs to the boldest hand. As vigilante violence, cattle-range tyranny, and a restless boomtown close in around them, Blaze Carlin and Frenchy Ditteau find themselves drawn into a struggle over justice, loyalty, and survival. Rich with dust, danger, and moral reckoning, this classic Western captures a raw borderland where every choice carries the weight of consequence.
According to Ng Loy
On the snowbound forks of Trinity Creek, three unlikely partners—an aging Chinese prospector, a stoic Swede, and a quick-tongued Irishman—find their fortunes bound together by a small carved ivory elephant said to bring luck and happiness to its owner. When Lars Anderson and Jimmy Mulcahy stumble half-frozen into Ng Loy's tiny cabin during a killing blizzard, the old miner takes them in, shares his claim, and offers them his most treasured talisman. But fortune is a fickle dealer, and when the charm later goes missing, suspicion poisons the bond between the three friends and threatens to undo what fate has so improbably built. W. C. Tuttle weaves superstition, hardship, and quiet wisdom into a meditation on luck, loyalty, and the cost of mistrust. First published in Adventure magazine in 1923, the story is a classic of the Northern frontier tradition.
Fires of Fate
On the lawless Canadian–Montana border, Montana cowpuncher Bud Conley has traded his saddle for the scarlet jacket of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police—until a single drink of doctored whisky in Monk Magee's Kingsburg hotel leaves him disgraced, discharged, and the prime suspect in a scandal he cannot remember. Stripped of his uniform but not his nerve, Bud rides out alone toward the very nest of outlaws that framed him, determined to clear his name and break a town no Mountie has yet been able to crack. When the next officer sent into Kingsburg turns up dead in the street and Bud's own revolver is found beside a rifled safe, the case against him hardens from disgrace into something far blacker. With a vengeful half-breed gambler on his trail and the woman he loves convinced of his guilt, Bud must walk the knife-edge between badge and outlaw to deliver the kind of justice the law alone cannot reach. W. C. Tuttle's hard-riding border tale pits one ex-cowpuncher against a town built on smuggled whisky, stolen cattle, and the long memory of the Mounted.
The Curse of the Painted Cliffs
In the painted cliffs of Calico, a lawless Mojave mining town where silver dust and gun smoke mingle, Luck Sleed inherits an empire she never wanted. Haunted by a vanished gambling debt and drawn nightly to the desert’s vast silence, she searches for something beyond the canyon’s rough music and rougher men. As new power gathers behind the green cloth and the mines begin to falter, Calico tightens around her like a trap. A stark, atmospheric Western of ambition, honor, and survival at the edge of civilization.
The Misdeal
At the rough-edged NR ranch near Broken Butte, four hard-bitten cowboys find themselves cheated by death, tangled in a disputed inheritance, and forced to reckon with the consequences of their own crooked work. When a refined new heiress arrives to claim the ranch, loyalties shift, tempers flare, and frontier justice takes on a sharply comic edge. W. C. Tuttle’s “The Misdeal” blends Western intrigue, outlaw humor, and colorful range-country dialogue in a tale of deception, pride, and unlikely conscience.
Rustler's Roost
When Tex Rowland—wrongly convicted horse thief—escapes from Elk Lodge penitentiary with the help of a dying trusty, a train wreck grants him an unexpected second chance: a new face and a new identity. As 'William H. Smith,' he returns to the cattle country that framed him, where old feuds simmer between ranchers and sheepmen, and the girl he left behind now works for the very man who sent him to prison. In a world where loyalty runs deeper than the law, Tex must decide whether to reclaim his past or forge a future no one will recognize.
Sun Dog Loot
In Sun Dog County, Sheriff Brick Davidson faces a mounting wave of robberies, political pressure, and a frontier that grows more dangerous by the day. As suspicion deepens and loyalties are tested, wit, grit, and raw courage become the only defenses against a shifting criminal threat. Rich in Western atmosphere and driven by sharp dialogue, this classic tale blends action, humor, and suspense on a lawless range.
The Medicine Man
In the rugged Modoc range, rancher Bud Daley faces ruin when his entire herd vanishes and suspicion closes in around him. Burdened by debt, betrayed by circumstance, and caught between ruthless power and frontier justice, Bud must navigate a world where loyalty, reputation, and survival are never certain. Blending Western mystery, sharp cowboy humor, and hard-edged range drama, W. C. Tuttle’s tale captures a lawless cattle country alive with danger, wit, and moral reckoning.
The Trey of Spades
In W. C. Tuttle’s classic Western tale, drifting cowpunchers Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens ride into the Thunder range hoping to find peace, only to discover a country shadowed by suspicion, family trouble, and a masked outlaw known as the Trey of Spades. As ranch rivalries, gambling rooms, and uneasy loyalties converge around Oxbow and the Maverick ranch, the two newcomers are drawn toward a mystery they meant to avoid. Blending frontier humor, hard-riding action, and old-range intrigue, this story captures the restless spirit of the cattle country at the edge of law and legend.
Fate of The Wolf
In the lawless Mexican borderland, the bandit known as El Lobo has transformed from folk hero to merciless killer, and Don Roberto Aliso's fortified rancho stands as his next target. When the laughing stranger Destino rides into Santa Clemente claiming to hunt The Wolf, the desperate rancher hires him as a guard—unaware that this mysterious gunfighter harbors secrets that could doom or save them all. As threats mount and betrayal festers within the walls, Destino must choose between vengeance and an unexpected love that awakens in the shadow of danger. From the author of adventure classics comes a tale of honor, deception, and deadly reckoning in the Old West.
Fire Brands
A classic Western tale of two wandering cowpunchers who stumble into trouble in the small cow town of Oreana. Sad Sontag and Swede Harrigan arrive to bid on a ranch sale, but when they defend a young orphan named Speck from a bullying rancher, they find themselves drawn into something more complicated than a simple auction. As they wait for the Bar S Ranch sale—a property lost to drink and debt—the two partners begin to sense something suspicious about the circumstances. With its quick-draw action, colorful characters, and the code of the Old West, this adventure promises gunplay, mystery, and the kind of justice that comes from standing up for what's right.
The Lovable Liar
In a rough cattle town at the edge of the frontier, two drifting cowboys arrive just as suspicion, old grudges, and a string of brazen crimes begin to tighten their grip on the range. As loyalties blur and danger gathers around ranchers, lawmen, and outcasts alike, the men find themselves drawn into a restless country where wit can be as vital as a gun. Wry, atmospheric, and sharply observed, this Western blends frontier mystery with dry humor and hard-riding adventure.
Loot of the Lazy A
On a rain-soaked night in fogbound San Francisco, a penniless young woman on the edge of Chinatown is pulled back from despair by a desert-hardened stranger with a battered suitcase and a stubborn sense of decency. A sudden collision with the city’s shadow economy sends them fleeing into the fog with an identity that isn’t hers—and a road that leads far from the bay. From bohemian chop-houses to an isolated Southwest cattle town where old grudges never quite die, survival will demand nerve, reinvention, and a careful reading of fate. Gritty, atmospheric, and charged with frontier tension, this tale follows two unlikely allies as they step into a world where every name carries a price.
His Brother’s Keeper
In the scorched reaches of Bitter Water Valley, a sheriff famed for his unbending devotion to the law sets out across the desert on a manhunt that becomes something far more intimate and unforgiving. As old grievances, family wounds, and frontier justice converge, the badlands strip every conviction to its core. W. C. Tuttle crafts a stark Western of moral conflict, harsh landscape, and the perilous line between duty and obsession.
Injuneered
In the rough-and-tumble frontier town of Piperock, a visit from a flamboyant old acquaintance turns an ordinary day into a spectacle of wagers, rivalries, and escalating disorder. Told in a lively vernacular, this comic Western spins together small-town pride, traveling-show chaos, and the unpredictable ambitions of men who never quite play fair. W. C. Tuttle delivers a fast-moving tale of gambling, swagger, and absurd misadventure set against the dusty humor of the American West.
I Buy Me Couple Horses
A wry frontier comedy unfolds when a man’s simple wish to own a couple of horses invites a parade of dubious bargains, hard-luck salesmen, and one unforgettable beast. Told in a sharp, colloquial voice, this classic Western sketch captures the hazards of rural ambition with deadpan humor and vivid period charm. W. C. Tuttle turns everyday misadventure into a lively portrait of optimism colliding with chaos on the range. Ideal for readers of vintage Americana, comic Western fiction, and literary cowboy tales.