Riders of the Dusk

When U.S. Marshal Whip Wilson and his white steed stop at a well for a drink of water, they are shot at by rancher Winks Holliday, who warns Whip that the water has been poisoned. Winks, who mistook Whip for The Phantom Raider, a cattle rustler who rides a white horse, is disappointed to discover that Whip is an undercover marshal on his way to town to aid Deputy Marshal Dunbar. Whip proceeds to the stage depot for his meeting with Dunbar, but finds the deputy dead on the floor and a strange portrait of a smiling woman hanging on the wall. When Danny Bronson slips out the depot's back door, Whip pursues him to the edge of a cliff, presuming that he is Dunbar's killer. After Danny tumbles over the side, Whip rescues him and is about to arrest him when Danny's partner, Nora Neal, appears, gun in hand, and frees Danny. Once Danny rides off, Whip uses his whip to yank the weapon from Nora's hand. Rancher Bradshaw, the target of the rustler's raids, then spots Whip, and thinking that he is the outlaw, gives chase with his men. Nora leads Whip into a secret tunnel, and as Bradshaw and his men ride past unaware, she asserts that Danny did not kill Dunbar. After losing Whip, Bradshaw, Dunbar's actual murderer, returns to town and reports the incident to Jack Hall, his covert partner in crime and the proprietor of the cattle and land office. Hall then instructs Art, Bradshaw's henchman, to tell the town's naïve new sheriff, Jim Scott, that the Raider killed Dunbar. While eavesdropping outside the sheriff's office, Winks hears Art's accusation and immediately returns to the stage depot to warn Whip that he is being framed for murder. When the sheriff, led by Bradshaw, nears the depot, Whip pretends to be Winks's prisoner and is arrested by the sheriff. In town, Hall and Bradshaw, who framed Nora's father for the murder of the previous sheriff, plot to eliminate Whip. After the sheriff leaves town to summon the county judge to preside at Whip's trial, Winks tricks the deputy sheriff into leaving the office. Using the bullwhip that Winks slipped into his cell, Whip lashes the whip around the leg of the sheriff's desk, drags it to his cell door, removes the keys and escapes. Later, Whip meets Winks and informs him that Hall is a convicted forger. Winks then muses that Hall may have been responsible for the imprisonment of Nora's father because Hall arrived in town just weeks before Neal was arrested for the murder of the sheriff. As the Raider struck while Whip was in jail, Hall realizes that Whip is not the outlaw, but a marshal working undercover. Upon returning to the depot to search for evidence, Whip removes the portrait and finds Nora spying on him through a hole in the wall. After Nora tells Whip that she suspects Bradshaw robbed her father of his cattle and then framed him for murder, Whip reveals that he is a representative of the law. Soon after, Bradshaw and his men surround the depot and Nora leads Whip through a secret tunnel to the safety of her hideout, where she is holding the cattle that she and Danny have "reclaimed" from Bradshaw. The sheriff, who is Nora's fiancé, follows her there, and when he insists on arresting Whip, Danny strikes him from behind. While riding back to town, Whip meets Winks, who has secured a load of dynamite. In town, Winks bursts into Hall's office followed by Whip, who orders Hall to open his safe. After Whip tricks Hall into admitting that Bradshaw killed Dunbar, he forces him to open the safe at whip point and inside finds forged bills of sale. Soon after, Bradshaw and his men storm the office, and as Winks holds them off, Whip slips out the back and climbs onto the roof. After Winks disarms the gang by threatening to pelt them with dynamite, Jim, finally convinced by Nora of Whip's identity, arrests them while Whip overwhelms Bradshaw with his fists. Jim then apologizes to Whip and Nora, and as Jim and Nora plan their wedding, Whip promises to petition the governor for the release of Nora's father.