"Puzzle of the Purple Pony!" was written by Gardner Fox, penciled and inked by Carmine Infantino with Julius Schwartz as editor. And probably Gaspar Saladino on lettering.
The splash page shows a scene from the story's climax from another angle, which looks a lot less dramatic with the old west baddies looking a little goofy. But it does tease the story pretty well, and at least the couple in the foreground look really well done. Admittedly, if anyone was up to having prominent figures in the background, foreground and midground, it'd be Infantino.
So, it's the Elongated Man out west!
They stop their car to watch some wild horses running. Sue is spellbound while Ralph seems uninterested. This reminds us that they're from different backgrounds. Ralph grew up in the country while Sue is from a higher class family. As such, it makes sense that she'd be more enthralled with such sights. Also, check the visual differences between them: Ralph is wearing a cowboy hat and a bolo tie with his brown pants and green button-up shirt. Sue is wearing appropriate attire for the climate, but it's much more contemporary.
Infantino nicely draws the western landscape in this story. But that's hardly a surprise as DC had him on staff during the era where they specialized in western comics.
Sue is surprised as she sees a man in a jeep lasso and catch a wild pony and begin painting it purple. Ralph is generally uninterested, but Sue heads down to investigate. Inquiring, the cowboy refuses to tell her, saying it would "ruin everything" if he told her. Returning to the car, Sue orders Ralph to investigate, expecting him to meet her in town for the rodeo in four hours. Ralph changes into his costume and gets on the case, tracking the cowboy.
"I wouldn't admit it to Sue," Ralph thinks, "but I'm glad she made me do this! This might turn out to be more exciting than any rodeo!" So I just hold that Ralph was interested in the purple horse, he just knew that if he acted uninterested, Sue would make him go investigate.
Most of Ralph's tracking is keeping low to the ground, stretching behind rocks and brush. He watches the cowboy meet a school teacher who calls him Jimmy Crowder. Jimmy and Nora, the school teacher, go riding out to the stretch of country known for being the alleged location of the Lost Frenchman Mine. If we're looking at locations, there was indeed gold found around Yuma, Arizona. And yes, there were stories about frenchmen leaving town intending to return for their gold with a skeleton turning up. And by car, it would be just over two and a half hours from Yuma to Cactus City, fitting in the four hour timeframe cited by Sue. Considering how much information Gardner Fox put in his stories, this shouldn't be surprising.
Luckily, Ralph uses his powers to stretch his nose out of the water so he can breathe. Getting carried a little further downstream, he emerges (I told you last time he'd get wet) and begins trailing the gunmen as well.
The story switches its focus on Jimmy Crowder and Nora, who stop about an hour's ride from where we left Ralph and begin searching for the Lost Frenchman's Mine. After an hour of searching, Jimmy notices the purple pony nudging at the ground with its hoof. Noticing a hole, he discovers rotting canvas bags of gold.
Celebrating their discovery, Jimmy and Nora are interrupted by the gunmen who hold them at gunpoint while one of them goes to claim the mine, making the gold legally theirs. However, a trailing Ralph uses a prickle from a cactus plant to knock the rider from his horse. He grabs the rider and knocks him out.
However, the men have other pistols, and Ralph stretches and bends himself out of their lines of fire before knocking them out. Jimmy gets their guns and Ralph accompanies Jimmy and Nora in turning the gunmen over to the authorities and claiming the mine.
In return for his help, Jimmy reveals why he painted the pony purple. (I hope he used non-toxic paint or at least just dye.) He says that in return for saving the life of an old native American medicine man, he got a prophecy about the mine.
He says the verse was written in "Indian verse." There were several tribes who lived in Arizona, so it's difficult to tell exactly which one since Fox is being vague. Jimmy shows Ralph the prophecy as translated in English, where we have an element that doesn't quite add up: the translated prophecy rhymes, whereas most translated verse doesn't rhyme as when it's put in another language, the words change.
The rhyme is:
When a wild pony turns purple and a hundred years pass
The lost frenchman mine will be found with a lass!
Ralph manages to get to the rodeo just in time and Sue has him explain the story. Sue asks why Jimmy didn't tell her when she asked, and Ralph explains the prophetic verse had two more lines (that suspiciously also rhyme):
If anyone else should learn this rhyme,The only question I have is why were the gunmen trailing Jimmy? Likely lots of people headed out there to try to find the lost gold. What made Jimmy stand out so much that they were tracking him and tried to kill Ralph?
The mine will stay hid for a century's time!
Again, this is a rather forgettable story. The lining up of locations works well for Fox's pen and Infantino draws a nice western comic. I suppose the story holds up, even with the afore mentioned weaknesses. But likely if you were to ask me in a year or so what the story was about, I might have trouble telling you without looking.
Next time, more adventures in California with Ralph and Sue.
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