Festus is nearly rundown by a speeding wagon on the trail between Hays City and Dodge. He soon finds the wagon further up the trail with a broken wheel. Here he meets Angus McTabboot and his 'unofficial' nephew Jock. It turns out that Angus is on his way to Dodge to open a newspaper and winds up hiring Festus as a reporter, with Jock as his aide to read and write for him. After digging three bullets out of the back of Angus' wagon, Matt speaks to Angus and discovers he was run out of Hays City for printing ""the truth about people,"" regardless of the consequences. The first thing Festus writes aboutis how local rancher Merl Benlan got his start by rustling cattle down in Texas. Merl gets pretty upset and goes after Festus and Angus. Then, when Angus explains the concept of advertising to Festus, he creates a price war between Mr. Jonas' and Clab Chummer's general stores, which gets seriously out of hand. Things eventually deteriorate and Festus runs a front page
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