…talking up a storm, that is…  Ha!

Notice how quiet Baldy is now…  letting Mark prattle on.  He doesn’t want another dose of Trailian Justice…  But then Mark seems to have lost his touch- usually the fisticuffs are what ends a story, but I guess not now…

So as the wormhole opens upon the prairie, we have Sheriff Don making his way, the FBI staying home, and Cherry at Lost Forest not even slightly concerned about the FBI calling her…  And Lone Elk given up for dead.

It’s clear that “Lady” is back up on the horse, but it was equally clear that she wasn’t just a minute ago…  (two days or so in Trail-time…) And Mark, since when do you start talking like you are from t deep south?  Y’all?  What the H’ell…

Glad to see that Blondie is able to keep her coiffure in order… despite the falling rain and gale for winds…

Since Mark still doesn’t know anyone’s name, besides his own and Johnny’s, he has to resort to “Lady” which is not a very good descriptor for one who double-crosses and wields s gun…

I expect Blondie to now turn on Baldy, given that his sense of timing and level of patience continues to be maddeningly off…  I mean, ho long did that fight last? 2 or 3 seconds?  And he’s kvetching about how long it took her to fire a shot across Mark’s prow??

Wasn’t onto you?!  Surely, lady, you have not met the likes of Mark Trail!  (Mr. Trail to you!)  He plays dumb, and at times (mostly) pulls it off… but I guess he was onto you the whole time.  I wonder what tipped him off??

There’s the gun!!

Suddenly, shots are fired and the lighting comes up and Blondie reveals herself for what she is!  A no-good-nick!  A Baddie, a regular Mata Hari…  Mark looks like he is ready to go low in panel three- the tackling skills that put many a crook down…  Unfortunately Mark’s brain right now is a study in cognitive dissonance…  “What th-…  a woman?  THE woman that I figured on having to save?  And whose advances I would have to fend off, to whom I would have to explain that I am a happily married man?”  Poor Mark… He just wasn’t made for these times…

How long has it been, boys and girls?  How long has it been since Mark was allowed to unleash the fists of fury??  A left AND a right…

This has been a loooong time coming, though, right??  A slow burn- the likes of which we have never seen in the Trailverse- to the point where we all figured Mark had turned in his man-badge and was just going to be put-upon for the rest of time… I love the monologue as he’s delivering the haymakers!  And just look at the spit flying in the second panel… seriously.  I can’t get enough of this…

Aren’t we all just a wee bit tired (OK, very tired) of Grumpy McGrumperson’s snarl?

What on earth did Mark say this time to make Baldy cross?  Apparently simply answering questions is enough to set him off…  “Do you think he’s still alive down there?”  “You stay here – I’ll go check!” is seemingly more than he can handle… Of course I’d be pissed too, if I had raindrops pelting my bald head and running down my face…  At least Trail has HelmetHair, guaranteed to keep his scalp dry, if nothing else…

So… I guess the “trick riding” skills have come in handy here…  somehow Johnny and his steed managed to complete their revolutions on the way down and while not exactly landing on their feet, seem only slightly worse for wear…

KA-THUD… is that the sound a horse makes when landing on its side and breaking ribs?  We all know the time honored UUNNGH! The sound of a Trailian man landing on his backside after a plunge off a cliff… again no harm done…

Well this sucks.  I don’t think Johnny’s ride is going to survive this tumble…  sort of like the scene in the movie The Revenant…  We’ll have to see how Johnny makes out.  I see foot in stirrup, but that’s about it…

But thank you, Captain Obvious, for making sure we all know what is going on…  We’ll have to see Monday how this all turns out…

As if on cue, enter Mother Nature, stage left…

Why not, you know?  It was high time that she got in on the act…  But Lone Elk going over a cliff?  Does that constitute trick riding?  By the look on his face and the way the horse is all tucked up, it seems as though he intended to do this…

Man, criminals sure can be needy…

My friend?  Now there’s a Trailverse standby if ever there was one…  No, not your friend, bitch, you are the one that has forced us into this situation, now you can suck it up, buttercup… Note how Mark’s hair remains impervious to the wind and driving rain…  We can draw comfort from those things that do not change, come what may…

I guess Sheriff Don Stober is a man accustomed to going it alone…  so off he goes into a driving rain, astride one and leading another heavy horse… while the Feds are warm and dry inside their field office…

But that’s how he likes it, as he promises to bring Jimmy’s horses back to him in one piece.  I wonder if that’s the entire herd- there’s six of them now committed to this caper.  We would suppose not though, as there are the “fast” ones yet in the barn…

Fear not, Jimmy… good always prevails in the Trailverse.  It might take us a while to get there, but good always prevails…

So… Strong it is!  Judging by the build, these are either Percheron or Clydesdale horses, heavy horses built to pull and carry.  Makes me wonder what Sheriff Don wants with a second one, maybe to haul bank-robber carcasses back to the jailhouse…

“Serve you well?”  “Hopefully?”  Good lord, who writes these lines? Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.  You show up, demand mounts, and then damn them with faint praise.

And what’s with the rain gear Jimmy is wearing?  Looks like a surplus haz-mat suit from the Army-Navy store…

because he is the law…  in these parts.  Another great great movie scene comes to mind- from the Coen Brothers remake of True Grit– When Rooster Cogburn (played by Jeff Bridges) is defending his use of force in the apprehension of some evil-doers…

But seriously Sheriff Don…  You would only have to use that carbine if you are picking them off from a distance, right?  At which point you might have a little trouble explaining yourself…

…the scene in The Princess Bride when evil Prince Humperdink promises to send his “four fastest ships” in search of Princes Buttercup’s true love Westley who has been taken hostage by the Dread Pirate Roberts, until, that is, later on when Prince H was caught in a lie when he then stated that his “entire armada” would escort them on their honeymoon…  “All but your four fastest ships, right?” she asks…

Again, Jimmy, you were relieved of four horses when Mark and his “friends” came and went, and you still have enough mounts left in the barn to offer up “fast” vs. “strong?”  And why the hell didn’t the sheriff come with his own horse, Like Tommy Lee Jones in “No Country for Old Men?”  Real men bring their own, right??

As Tennessee Ernie Ford (thanks for that reference!) moves in more closely, under the shelter of the porch, he announces that he, too, will need horses… not a horse, but a couple of horses.  He is, after all, Reigning Lawman of the Year, and he would naturally need more than one horse.  One for himself, the other for his ego that he carts around with him…

And why the Ghost Town?  What is leading you there, Sheriff?  Heck, what is leading anyone there?  And I remind all of us that Baldy and his would-be captive are going places that make no earthly sense if “getting away” is the objective… And is all the loot with them?  Did the supposed pilot of the (to this point unseen) plane go to the airport?  is he still sitting there?  Whatever…

I wanted to comment yesterday, but glad I waited until today.  You gotta pace yourself when days lasts months in the Trailverse…  Sheriff Don sure has an interesting approach to facial hair!  A pencil-thin mustache to go along with pencil-thin sideburns that flare out at the bottom.  And the bottom is waaaay down his face… his loooong face…

Still trying to figure out why/how it is that Sheriff Don stands out in the rain getting soaked while Jimmy & Cherry (oops, I mean Sarita) are but a few feet away and not getting a drop on them?

And of course the cell tower is out… because that happens ALL THE TIME… right??

Sarita seems to have the mistaken notion that one usually greets a sheriff when there is nothing wrong… I don’t know, like maybe when he’s running for re-election?  It’s always struck me funny that Sheriff is generally an elected position- like politics ought to even play a role..

Ah yes, the dark and sultry Sarita…  we can barely see her emanating from the shadows of the porch overhang…

The “people with Johnny?”  What about Mark Trail?  He’s the reason for all of you getting your 15 minutes of fame here…  And come in out of the rain for crying out loud…  I know you have your policeman’s Macintosh on, but really?  If we are going to have a discussion, why not do it in a dry spot?

Sheriff Don Stober arrives, finally, supposedly with six-guns and a tomahawk.

Too bad he had to borrow the Local Police’s truck…  Sheriff jurisdictions are counties, right?  And their vehicles say “Sheriff” not “Police,” right??

State Lawman of the year?  Is there such a thing?  And wouldn’t it be Law-person in this day and age?

So as the storm rages and the FBI is grounded, we learn that the “local Sheriff”  is a character and descended from villainy…

A fact that the FBI chief finds amusing, apparently.  And by the way, he has a name, remember? Sheriff Stober…

I promised I was done with the hairline… but a little montage reveals that he has bad hair days and Really Bad Hair Days…

C’mon James. A little consistency, please??

…or they don’t know how to drive?  Thanks for the comment yesterday… I agree.  What?  a little rain and they have to stay in the office waiting for the storm to pass?  That’s a good thing to know if you are a criminal…

And what is with the wagging finger gesture??  Seems as though that is the go-to artistic effect (I f we can really call it that) in the Trailverse… and it always emerges from the bottom of the frame- like a disembodied hand that may or may not belong to the person talking…

Right you are, Agent John Paul!  What DO we know about THAT local sheriff??  Can he be trusted to respect the Feds?  Does he know that once FBI is on the scene, they are in charge?

For the record, I am done talking about that stupid hairline…  but I can’t take my eyes off it… like a train wreck…