Ambush at Tomahawk Gap

Four outlaws--McCord, Kid, Egan and Doc--are released from the Yuma Territorial Prison and dropped off in the town of Twin Forks, Arizona. The outlaws immediately go into the saloon, where McCord, who was framed by the other three, gets into a fight with Kid. The sheriff throws Egan, Kid and Doc out of town after they knock McCord out, and when he reawakens, the bartender demands money for damages. McCord asks for buyers for his fancy Mexican saddle, and Stranton, a stranger, takes him up on the offer, paying off the bartender and giving McCord a horse and gun in exchange. McCord recognizes the horse's saddle as having belonged to Egan's brother Frank, but Stranton claims to have won it in a card game the night Frank was killed. McCord rides out of town and catches up with his cohorts, who are in the midst of a gun battle with Apache Indians. On McCord's suggestion, they all pretend that they have been killed, then attack and kill the Apaches as they come for their scalps. McCord, who was framed after Egan, Frank, Doc and Kid robbed a stagecoach carrying Cavalry payroll money, then holds his partners at gunpoint and delivers the news about Egan's brother. McCord demands $1,800 in reparations for the ranch wages he lost by going to prison in Frank's place. The four outlaws ride to Tomahawk Gap, where they had planned to meet Frank and recover the stolen money. As they get underway, they notice an Apache in the underbrush and prepare for an ambush. However, the Indian is a woman, who shoots Kid in self-defense when he attacks her. Kid demands that she be killed, but Egan takes her hostage. That night when they make camp, Kid becomes delirious because of his wound, and is tended to by the Indian woman, while Doc, a sympathetic older man, urges Kid to go straight to save his life. They finally reach Tomahawk Gap in the midst of a windstorm and discover that it has become a ghost town. Doc insists on cutting Kid's arm open to remove the bullet. The next morning, Egan attacks the Indian woman by the well, but is knocked out by Jonas P. Travis, the sole resident of Tomahawk Gap, who takes care of the cemetery, and is surprised to see a Navajo woman in Apache territory. Travis is distraught when the outlaws dig up a grave in which they had buried the stolen strongbox. However, they discover the strongbox is empty, prompting Kid to recall how they came to bury it: Frank has the strongbox when the outlaws split up after the robbery, agreeing to meet in Tomahawk Gap. Frank gets to town before anyone else, and as a posse is close behind, gives Kid the strongbox and suggests they meet in the graveyard and bury the money there. Frank does not show up until after they have buried the strongbox, and this is the last time they see him. The outlaws now realize that Frank must have emptied the strongbox before he gave it to them, and they proceed to look for the money by tearing up the town board by board. Stranton, a government agent, unexpectedly shows up at Tomahawk Gap and takes the gang hostage. His partner, Marlowe, is making contact at a nearby fort, and they intend to return the money to the Army. The Indian woman, who has already warned the outlaws about Apache smoke signals rising from the mountain ridges, knocks Stranton out with a blow to the head, and he and Jonas are tied up together. While the outlaws continue their destructive search, Stranton manages to get near a window and flash a signal with a piece of mirror, hoping it will be seen by a patrol. The Indian woman tries to warn Kid, but Egan claims it was she who sent the signal and attacks her. Kid starts to come to her defense, but the Apaches launch an attack and kill Egan as they invade the town. Although Kid has fallen in love with the Indian woman, he believes that she signaled the Apaches and sends her away. Doc is then killed by an Apache while trying to save Kid. In the saloon, Stranton admits to having signaled with the mirror and tells Kid that the woman is not an Apache, but was the Apaches' prisoner when she was kidnapped by the outlaws. After Jonas runs out of the saloon to protect his graveyard and is killed, Stranton is brutally murdered when Apaches drop through the ceiling of the saloon. During a lull in the fighting, McCord conceives of a plan to drop a keg of gunpowder into the gully in which the Apaches have gathered to nurse their wounded and ignite the powder with flaming arrows. McCord, Kid and the Indian woman leave the saloon to get the gunpowder, but McCord is stabbed by an Apache. Kid shoots McCord's assailant, and the woman shoots another attacker. McCord stumbles over to the gully with the keg and is immediately assaulted by the Indians. The gunpowder ignites, and McCord is killed in the explosion along with the Apaches. Later, Kid and the woman leave the ghost town together, headed for Sonora, and fail to notice the stolen money fluttering in the wind.