The Lone Avenger

Cal Weston returns after a lengthy absence to his hometown of Mesa on the same day that his father John, the president of the Cattleman's Bank of Mesa, is found dead. The doctor pronounces John's death a suicide, but Cal observes that the gun held by his father is in his right hand, even though his father was left-handed. Convinced that his father was murdered, Cal goes to the first floor of the bank, where the bank's vice-president, Martin Carter, tells panicking depositors that they cannot withdraw their money until an examiner has audited the books. Local bully Burl Adams insults John's lifelong friend, Joel Winters, but he is forced to apologize after Cal forces two of his men to dunk him in a horse trough. Afterward, Cal, Joel and Joel's daughter Ruth agree to keep Cal's identity a secret so that he can investigate his father's death. Joel tells Cal that six months earlier, he and John had organized a vigilante committee, to which they can now appeal for help. That night, Cal goes to his father's office to search for his papers, but when he arrives, he finds two other men already doing so. Cal struggles with the men, who wound him as they escape. Cal does not recognize them, but they are Adams and Sam Landers, members of Carter's gang. Carter had sent them to retrieve certain documents, which prove that it was Carter, not John, behind the embezzlement of the bank's funds, but what the henchmen have found is a photograph of Cal, with an inscription that reveals his identity. Carter plans on making Cal pay for his father's alleged crimes, and soon after, Carter's gang ambushes the bank examiner and leaves him for dead. While the wounded man struggles to find shelter in an abandoned mine, Carter's planted bank examiner tells the town citizens that John pilfered their savings. Nip and Tuk, two local hell-raisers, point out Cal and reveal that he is John's son, and Carter stirs the crowd into demanding that Cal suffer the punishment for his father. The mob ties Cal to his horse "Tarzan," but Cal escapes, and after Tarzan unties him, he goes to the mine, where he finds the wounded stranger. While he tends to the man, Joel, Ruth, the sheriff, doctor, Nip and Tuk and other members of the vigilante committee arrive for a meeting. They find Cal and the wounded man, and after Nip and Tuk explain to Cal that they are actually on his side, the group plans to snare John's killer. That night, Nip and Tuk go to the saloon where Carter, Adams and Landers are playing poker, and brag about Cal's skill with a gun. Cal then throws a rock through the saloon window with a note saying that he knows who his father's murderer is and will come for him at 8:00. Nip and Tuk succeed in making Landers so nervous that he shoots at Cal when he enters, thereby revealing his guilt. The real bank examiner identifies Landers, but before Landers implicates Adams and Carter, they escape with two of their men and return to the bank vault, where Ruth is working. Carter locks Ruth in the vault and attempts to hold off Cal in a gun battle, while Nip and Tuk struggle with the other desperadoes. Cal bests Carter with the sheriff and and makes him free Ruth and write a full confession. Later, Cal, Ruth and Joel re-open the bank, satisfied customers make new deposits, and Cal and Ruth plan on running the bank together.