The Bar-20 Three

Bar 20, as any Hopalong Cassidy fan knows, is the name of the ranch where Hoppy and his pals work when they’re not out righting wrongs and punishing evildoers (which seems to be just about never). Bar 20 is also the name of this 1906 novel by Clarence E. Mulford that introduced a young redheaded cowboy with a limp, nicknamed "Hopalong" Cassidy, to the world. Johnny Nelson, Hopalong Cassidy's young protégé, has finally got hitched. bought into a ranch and run into rustlers, bank robbers, and thieves with murder on their mind. It is possible Johnny, Hoppy, and Red Conners, three men from the Bar-20 can bring an end to this reign of terror and do it in style? "A man was only a man when he had the qualities necessary; and the illiterate who could ride and shoot and live to himself was far more esteemed than the educated who could not do those things. The more a man depends upon himself and the closer is his contact to a quick judgment the more laconic and even-poised he becomes. And the knowledge that he is himself a judge tends to create caution and judgment. He has no court to uphold his honor and to offer him protection, so he must be quick to protect himself and to maintain his own standing." (cover image courtesy of Keith Davis)