Panamint's Bad Man

In California, in 1876, Marshal Winston of the Havilah territory sends Marshal Larry Kimball to the town of Panamint, where Kimball is not known, to round up a gang responsible for bank robberies and holdups that Winston believes is led by saloon owner King Gorman. Winston wants Kimball to gain Gorman's confidence and catch him red-handed. After Black Jack Deevers, a noted outlaw from Texas, is arrested on his way to Panamint, Kimball suggests to Winston that it might be easier to infiltrate Gorman's gang if they think he is Deevers. As three of Gorman's gang stop a stagecoach carrying a $20,000 mine payroll, Kimball, with a kerchief over his mouth, orders the gunmen to ride off. One of them notices that he wears Deevers' initialed belt, and Gorman soon gets word that Deevers, whom no one in Panamint has seen, pulled the job. Kimball does not rob Joan DeLysa, an opera singer who is traveling from Denver on the stage to sing in Gorman's saloon. In Panamint, Kimball, using the alias "John Smith," attracts the attention of Gorman, who, suspecting that he is Deevers, cordially welcomes him. Although Joan recognizes Kimball as the holdup man, she thanks him when he interrupts Gorman's associate, Todd Craven, as he tries to kiss her. After Deevers breaks out of jail and heads towards Panamint, Winston sends a telegram to Kimball's contact person, a marshal's widow who lives ten miles from Panamint. Kimball reads the telegram at the widow's ranch and then suggests to mine owner Carl Adams that he melt his silver into 250-pound bars to make it difficult for the robbers to steal. Worried that his cover will be blown if Deevers gets to Panamint, Kimball holds him up as he camps. During a fight, Deevers gains respect for Kimball, who identifies himself as "The Cactus Kid," and Deevers agrees to help him rob Gorman's gang after they pull a job. To keep him away from town, Kimball sends him to the widow's ranch. In Panamint, Kimball arranges to rob the shipment of silver from Adams' Silver Queen mine and split 50-50 with Gorman, if Gorman will participate in the holdup. When three members of Gorman's gang show up instead of Gorman, Kimball refuses to go through with the robbery. Gorman's men, upon discovering that they cannot lift the 250-pound bars of silver, leave in frustration. Meanwhile, when the widow refuses to kiss Deevers and slaps him instead, Deevers heads for Panamint to look for Kimball. Kimball tells Gorman about a $75,000 heist, but refuses to give any details until Gorman shows up for the robbery. When Deevers arrives at Gorman's saloon, Kimball introduces him as "The Calico Kid" and tries to talk the now suspicious Gorman into cutting Deevers in on the robbery. After the robbery, the gang, on Gorman's orders, ties up Kimball and Deevers. As they interrogate Kimball to learn the location of the $20,000 he stole, Deevers cuts the rope binding his hands and shoots his captors. He then rescues Kimball just as one of the gang is about to shoot him. Adams and the posse arrive, and after a shootout, the gang is captured. Deevers is flabbergasted when he learns that Kimball is a marshal, but soon he is appointed to be a deputy marshal himself. Kimball leaves with Joan for Denver for two weeks, presumably for a honeymoon, as Deevers wonders how he will live down the fact that he is a marshal.