Helped by a horse doctor
- 1 online resource : multiple file formats
- Produced from the Mid-October, 1920 issue of Adventure magazine. .
- Produced from the Mid-October, 1920 issue of Adventure magazine. .
Release date is 2026-04-24
Prepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net) Prepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net)
Helped by a horse doctor by W. C. Tuttle is a humorous Western short story written in the early 20th century. The tale lampoons frontier boosterism through a comic fraternal-lodge and life‑insurance scheme that snares a hot‑tempered cow‑town and turns petty feuds into farce.
Narrator Ike Harper watches his pardner Magpie Simpkins launch the “Loyal Legion of Lizards,” a bogus benevolent order that sells $5‑a‑month policies promising $500 at death. During a day when Piperock’s new city council erupts into a rolling gunfight, Ike hustles applications from feuding townsmen—mayor Wick Smith, Mighty Jones, Judge Steele, Buck Masterson, Pete Gonyer, and the pious “Old Testament” Tilton—each eager to profit if a rival dies. That night, at the Mint Hall, Doc Milliken examines the candidates; only peaceable Dirty Shirt Jones passes. The initiation devolves into pranks—cayenne‑dusted boots, a blindfolded bullsnake, and a bungled toss from a window—while a battle‑minded goat named John L. scatters the crowd and finally eats the lodge charter. Doc returns the money, noting Dirty passed because he wasn’t mad at anyone, and the grand scheme collapses in slapstick ruin. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Short stories Western stories Men -- Societies and clubs -- Fiction Simpkins, Magpie (Fictitious character) -- Fiction Harper, Ike (Fictitious character) -- Fiction Piperock (Montana : Imaginary place) -- Fiction