It was a warm, spring day, as Dan Reid whistled merrily as he walked through a thick group of willows by the railroad track outside Stone City. Dan had been spending a vacation with the Lone Ranger and Tonto, who were camped at another point in the extensive thicket. It was his intention to go swimming in a nearby river, but suddenly his whistling stopped as he noticed a heavy odor of wood smoke and cooking food in the air, and halted in his tracks. Peering through a break in the willows, he saw that he had come upon another camp, and squatted beside the fire was an incredibly dirty boy! Dan approached the boy, Ned Dennis, who told him that whilst he was out west looking for his parents, he was staying with some outlaws - safe blowers!