Justice On Halfaday Creek

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In the notorious colony of outlaws on Halfaday Creek, every newcomer draws his name out of a tin can, and old Cush at the saloon keeps more money in his safe than most banks ever see. Tough, cagey Black John Smith maintains law and order in the district, and in dispensing justice he never forgets the value of money.In this high-spirited, action-loaded series of stories about the Yukon-Alaska border country, he manages to rake in a profit with every adventure. He foils a plot dreamed up by as mean a gang of crooks as ever stacked a deck, exchanging twenty-five thousand dollars in fake bills for good ones; he runs a pair of swindlers out of town, after persuading them to leave their cash behind, in his name; and he doubles the twenty thousand he paid for some sacks of fool's gold, and hangs a murderer in the bargain.

Cushing’s Fort on Halfaday Creek is conveniently located in Canadian territory close to the border of United States territory, so that men in ill repute with the Mounted Police can elude them easily. There are “outlaws” of Halfaday Creek live, a band of doughty prospectors ruled by their self-appointed czar, Black John Smith, one of many John Smiths that inhabit that notorious lair.Law and order, however, are nowhere so well maintained as on Halfaday Creek, and Black John dispenses justice with the wisdom of a Solomon and a heart as big as the biggest nugget ever found in the gold rush days. Murder is one of the minor hangable offenses there; skullduggery, connivin’ and conspirin’ are punished by the rope, after a miners’ meeting passes an irrevocable sentence. Confidence men, city slickers, anyone who would take advantage of another man, woman or child, are dealt with sharply, and with a geniality that disarms evildoers unfamiliar with Black John’s swift, efficient legal procedure.In this warmhearted and humorous chronicle of strange doings on Halfday, Corporal Downey of the Mounted and Black John and Old Cush punish some murderers, claim robbers and scoundrels who have made the mistake of assuming that the “outlaws” are not men of honor. Black John needs no introduction to his many admirers; he is one of out most honest and lovable rogues.

In the notorious colony of outlaws on Halfaday Creek, every newcomer draws his name out of a tin can, and old Cush at the saloon keeps more money in his safe than most banks ever see. Tough, cagey Black John Smith maintains law and order in the district, and in dispensing justice he never forgets the value of money.In this high-spirited, action-loaded series of stories about the Yukon-Alaska border country, he manages to rake in a profit with every adventure. He foils a plot dreamed up by as mean a gang of crooks as ever stacked a deck, exchanging twenty-five thousand dollars in fake bills for good ones; he runs a pair of swindlers out of town, after persuading them to leave their cash behind, in his name; and he doubles the twenty thousand he paid for some sacks of fool’s gold, and hangs a murderer in the bargain.

Readers of James B. Hendryx's previous books will have no difficulty in remembering Halfaday Creek on the Alaskan-Canadian border, or Black John, the one-man police force who metes out justice to a variety of dubious characters. For those who are new to these tales of the Northwest, we need only say that Halfaday Creek is the home of a number of outlaws who find it convenient to have a border to step across when the law appears, and that Black John spends most of his time keeping the "crick" clear of swindlers, gold thieves, unwanted wives, and cardsharps. In this story Black John evens up the score with a number of old enemies. On a trip "outside" to his boyhood home, he perpetrates a clever swindle on a too-zealous banker who once had caused trouble over his father's mortgage; encounters his friend Cush's third wife on the way to the "crick" to make trouble for her husband, and engineers the hanging of some high-grade ore thieves. This is accomplished with Black John's usual imperturbability and good humor, and the fact that he comes out a few thousand dollars ahead on each of the deals in no way lessens his moral stature. Black John's many fans will find him as resourceful and unpredictable as ever, and there is no slackening in the pace of life on Halfaday Creek.

As Black John, "the Law" on the Creek, is fond of saying, the interval between the crime and the hanging is hardly worth mentioning. This time, and with the sometime assistance of Corporal Downey, Black John deals competently with assorted skullduggery, and his many activities include-- Solving a series of pay-roll robberies, Expertly swindling a swindler, Seeing to it that Lady Ainslee-Higginbotham's fortune goes to the rightful heir, and not to a hospital for homeless mongooses in Rangoon. Then, too, the population of the Creek, made up mostly of outlaws who have tired of ducking insistent invitations from the Yukon and the United States Police, has to be kept under control. Black John deals out justice to all with high accuracy, high speed, and high spirits.