Nine Points in the Law

In the rough frontier cow town of Piperock, Ike Harper watches civic ambition curdle into gunfire, gossip, and outright lunacy. When dreamer Scenery Sims returns with a movie camera and a scheme to film an African adventure, Piperock's Chamber of Commerce seizes the chance to turn chaos into publicity, planning to buy circus animals, stage a "jungle" picture, and build a zoological garden that will put the town on the map. Led by the scheming Magpie Simpkins, the project becomes a comic contest of pride as neighboring Paradise and Yaller Horse mock the plan, threaten sabotage, and lay claim to the animals themselves. As bills of sale are bought in secret and the supposed bargain beasts prove far more dangerous than anyone imagined, the town descends into escalating feuds, drunken bluffing, and slapstick violence. Ike, Dirty Shirt Jones, and Mighty Jones are dragged through chases, beatings, and legal nonsense, only to find themselves fighting lions, tigers, elephants, and rival toughs in a wrecked saloon and livery stable. With mistaken identity, runaway animals, and frontier bravado everywhere, Piperock's grand public-spirited dream becomes a riotous satire of boosterism, ownership, and small-town pride. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.