Triggerman

When undercover detective Johnny Mack Brown arrives in a western town looking for a job on the Daley Ranch, he is told that Daley is in prison serving a sentence for a payroll robbery. En route to the ranch, Johnny meets Lois Benton, who claims to own the Daley spread, and she and her gruff, unsmiling foreman, Rusty Steel, agree to give Johnny a trial period on the ranch. In town, land speculator Kirby is informed that a stranger has been asking about the Daley ranch and considers the possibility that Johnny might be a detective. Rusty, meanwhile, tells Johnny that Kirby is anxious to get hold of the ranch and doesn't care how he gets it. Later, in the town saloon, Johnny meets Kirby, who asks him to try to persuade Lois to sell the ranch to him. Johnny then gets into a fight with one of Kirby's men, knocks him out and is about to be shot by Kirby when Rusty intervenes. Later, Johnny suggests to Rusty that they work together to help Lois. Back at the ranch, they surprise a cowboy searching for something in a barn, then ride after him. After they catch him, he explains that he is a Wells Fargo detective looking for a stolen payroll chest which is supposedly hidden somewhere on the ranch. The man has no identification on him, but while searching the cowboy's pockets, Rusty palms a piece of paper he finds, and later discovers that the paper is one half of a crude map. Johnny surprises him examining the map and tells him that he is actually the Wells Fargo detective authorized to locate the missing payroll and asks Rusty to help him. At the saloon, Rusty tells Kirby that he is no longer working at the ranch and discovers that Kirby is in possession of the other half of the map. After they agree to meet to match up the halves, Kirby tips off his gunmen and, as he and Rusty meet, they move in. Johnny, who is also looking on, does the same and a shootout ensues. Although they are severely outnumbered, Johnny and Rusty manage to escape, then Kirby and his men kidnap Lois and inform Johnny that she will only be freed if he hands over the map. Johnny does so but Kirby refuses to release Lois until the chest is located, fearing that Johnny may summon the law. Kirby orders Johnny and Rusty to be held captive, but they soon overpower their guard and follow Kirby's trail. Lois has meanwhile escaped from the group and Johnny and Rusty come to her rescue when she is chased by one of Kirby's men. Leaving Rusty to look after Lois, Johnny continues on in pursuit of Kirby. The map leads Kirby and his henchman to the interior of a barn on the Daley ranch and, as the chest is excavated, Johnny sneaks up on them and overpowers them. Lois arrives, opens the chest and extracts a piece of paper. She explains that she is really Lois Daley and that the paper, signed by all the payroll robbers agreeing how to divide up the loot, proves her father's innocence as his name is not on the paper. She then explains that one of the convicted robbers had told her of the paper's existence and that Rusty was just trying to help her get to the paper first, in case her father's name was on it. With everything settled, the stone-faced Rusty finally smiles.