On Your Guard

Frisco, a convicted bank robber with twenty years left to serve on his prison term, is paroled by his warden. Frisco immediately travels to a small mining town, which he knows has a small bank that could be easily robbed. Once in town, Frisco makes friends with a young boy, Buddy Shannon. The town sheriff arrives to arrest Buddy for horse stealing, but Frisco intervenes and offers to buy the horse from its owner if the sheriff will agree not to arrest the boy. The sheriff agrees to put Buddy in Frisco's care, and Frisco immediately lectures Buddy on the immorality of stealing. Buddy takes Frisco to his house, where they are met by his two sisters, Cissy and the baby Queenie. The trio have lived in squalid conditions since their father died trying to keep the mill from building the flume that now passes directly over their small cabin. As Frisco makes friends with Queenie, they are visited by Sam Gasper, who, the Shannons believe, had something to do with their father's death. Sam informs Cissy that he intends to cut down two hundred dollars worth of trees on their property in lieu of the money that Mr. Shannon owed to him. Frisco leaves to visit the bank and obtain the money for Cissy, but on his way into town, Buddy rides up to inform him that Sam's brother Chuck has already begun to chop down trees. Frisco returns to the homestead and, although he is badly beaten, manages to fight the two men off the land. Frisco goes to the saloon, where he overhears Sam and the banker Perkins make a deal for two hundred dollars. When Sam leaves, Frisco ambushes him and takes the money. The next day, when Sam returns to finish his work, Frisco pays Sam the money, and Sam returns to town to repay Perkins, who accuses him of making up the robbery story. He feels justified in this argument because he recognizes the bills that Sam has paid him with as the ones he gave to Sam the previous day. That evening after Frisco saves Buddy from Sam, they return to the cabin, and shortly after their arrival, the flume explodes, and logs and water crash down on the small house. Queenie is trapped inside, and although Frisco manages to get her out of the house, the doctors at the mill's hospital are unable to save her life. Meanwhile, the marshal has informed a group of men that Frisco is a convicted bank robber, and the men who believe that he is responsible for the death of Mr. Perkins, prepare to lynch him. After a battle, Frisco is captured, but Buddy helps him escape, and the marshal arrives to proclaim him innocent. He offers the money that Sam borrowed as proof that Sam and Chuck killed Perkins. Meanwhile, Sam and Chuck fight on a cliff. Unaware of their proximity to the edge, they roll off the side to their deaths. The next day, O'Hara, a police officer who has been following Frisco, visits him at the Shannon house, where he finds Frisco involved in domestic duties. He laughingly suggests that he may purchase the adjoining forty acres and Frisco joins in his laughter.