Rough Riders of Durango

Because ranchers near Durango have been unable to get their grain to market due to frequent raids by a gang of outlaws, they cannot make payments on their bank loans. Consequently their banker has announced that he must take action if the money is not paid by the following week. The ranchers discuss hiring guards to ensure the delivery of the shipment, but all agree that they cannot afford it, until the young sheriff, Bill Walters, arranges for an advance from the buyers at the county seat, which will be delivered through a series of couriers. Shortly after one courier, Allan "Rocky" Lane, delivers the money to the last courier on the route, he hears gunfire and returns to find the other courier dead and the money stolen. Rocky chases the murderer and almost apprehends him near the barn of elderly rancher Cricket Adams, but the cantankerous Cricket shoots blindly out his window and the outlaw escapes. The next day in town, as Rocky reports the theft to Bill, Cricket, who is antagonistic toward Bill, arrives to complain about the noise around his house and hands over an empty money bag he found in his barn. After Cricket leaves, Rocky suggests to Bill that the thief may have stashed the money in the barn, so they decide to delay alerting the ranchers and check out Cricket's barn while he is in town. Meanwhile, the murderer, Lacey, reports to John Blake, the owner of the local saddlery shop, that he has hidden the stolen money in a grain sack in Cricket's barn. Blake admits to Lacey his plans to cause the forfeiture of the ranchers' loans, so that they will lose their ranches and he can buy the rich grain fields cheaply. Later, Lacey and a fellow thug try to retrieve the money from Cricket's barn, but find Rocky and Bill already searching. During the ensuing gunfight, Cricket and his niece Janis, who is sweet on Bill, show up and get caught up in the exchange, but the outlaws leave. Sure that the outlaws will return, Rocky asks Cricket to hire him to help around the ranch. Cricket, who is still unaware that the money is stolen, is weary from recent events and agrees. With Janis' help, Rocky continues to search the barn for the money, but cannot locate it. Sometime later, Blake's henchmen tell Cricket that rustlers are disturbing one of his pastures. While Cricket rides out to check, Rocky sneaks back to the barn and sees Lacey and his cohort Willis searching sacks of grain. After Rocky is spotted by the men, a gunfight erupts and Rocky shoots Lacey. Bill then fortuitously arrives and arrests Willis. Having found his pastures untouched, Cricket returns, unaware of the troubles at home. Meanwhile, Rocky weighs each grain sack and after finding the stolen money in the heaviest sack, confides to Cricket that he is one of the couriers. After describing how the money was stolen, he asks Cricket to smuggle it to Bill in a grain sack when he takes his grain to town. To divert the outlaws away from the sack, Rocky pursues and catches one of Blake's men who is tailing him, and offers to split the money if his boss will meet him at Cricket's ranch while Cricket is away. Meanwhile, Cricket delivers a grain sack, but Bill later discovers it is the wrong one. From his jail cell, Willis overhears that the money has been mistakenly sent with the grain shipment, and is able to alert Blake, who then realizes Rocky is trying to trick him. Blake sends some of his men to ambush the wagons delivering the grain. At gunpoint he abducts Bill and Janis and sends them to Cricket's ranch, where, with Rocky, they will be killed. However, Rocky guesses that something has gone awry with his plans, and with Bill's help, they escape. Bill then rounds up a posse, while Rocky rides ahead to intercept the grain shipment. The posse arrives to stop the outlaws, and though Blake tries to get away, Rocky fights him and knocks him out. Later, considering Bill's part in apprehending the outlaws and getting the grain safely shipped, Cricket now approves of him, and before riding away, Rocky is promised a piece of Bill and Janis' wedding cake.