Stacked Cards

Zack Miller, foreman of 'Dad' Hall's Half Moon ranch, leads a band of cattle rustlers who are raiding the herds of honest cattlemen. Steve Spencer, who is determined to bring Miller to justice, convinces other ranchers to join him, but Miller tries to outwit him. On his deathbed, the honest Dad asks Steve, whom he loves like a son, to watch over the ranch until his heir, a long-missing niece, returns. As Dad is saying this, Miller and his cohort, Poker Face Pete, sneak toward his window and overhear what is being said. Unknown to Steve, Dad's niece, Fay Hall, is returning to the ranch. Miller and his henchmen decide to frighten her off by feigning an attack on her wagon. Before the attack, the wagon loses a wheel and Steve, who happens along, fixes it, impressing the pretty, Eastern-bred Fay. After Steve leaves, Miller's disguised men attack, causing the wagon's horses to run off with Fay. Sure that his plan to frighten her off has been successful when she is thrown into a canyon, Miller returns to the ranch, and is shocked when she arrives, having walked five miles from the canyon. Miller feigns sympathy for Fay, and over the following days tries to ingratiate himself to her. He soon makes overtures to her, but she pushes him away. Meanwhile, Steve learns that Dad's heir has arrived and determines to save the ranch from Miller. He asks a fellow rancher to summon a posse, then heads to the Half Moon. He arrives just as Fay is trying to fend off an attack from Miller. The men then fight, until Poker Face arrives and knocks Steve unconscious. After reporting that the posse has gotten the rest of the gang, Poker Face convinces Miller to leave. He drags Fay with him in a wagon, and when Steve comes to, he follows them on his horse. When he catches up to them, he and Miller brawl, leaving Fay in a runaway wagon. She is able to stop the wagon and goes back to Steve, who has been knocked out. Miller tries to escape on one of the horses, but falls after catching his boot in the stirrup, and is dragged to his death. Fay and the ranchers then tend to Steve, who feels that he has broken his promise to Dad to take care of her. She assures him he has not, and when he says that he has loved her from first sight, not even knowing who she was, she confesses the same and calls him her gallant knight of the road.