Small, sturdy Ricardo Romero is saved from grief when Hopalong Cassidy comes galloping in the nick of time to take him to the Running J's auction to recover his horse Pepper. Deliciously western colors in the Sahula-Dycke pictures of a beguilingly ten-galloned young Ricardo, tinted mountains, smiling, straight-backed Hopalong. A simple text makes this more of a picture story book than one to read aloud.