Abilene Trail

Unjustly accused of stealing horses, The Kansas Kid and his sidekick, Sagebrush Charlie, are trying to elude Sheriff Warner's posse when local rancher Ed Dawson shows them a shortcut. The three escape but Ed is wounded. Feeling responsible for the innocent young man's life, The Kid, now using the alias Dave Hill, and Charlie take Ed back to Tonto City, which is covered in wanted posters for the two horse thieves. Under Doc Martin's care, Ed's wounds are bandaged, and Doc tells Dave and Charlie that Ed's father, Ole Man Dawson, will lose the ranch without Ed's help because the ranch is shorthanded for the next drive to Abilene. Wanting to help the Dawson family and secretly needing a good cover to leave town, Dave asks Ed if he and Charlie can join the Dawson cowboys. Ed sends them to meet the foreman, Brandon, at the saloon. Brandon declines Dave's offer, saying Dawson's outfit is full, and sends them to Slavens, the foreman for rival rancher Colter. When Dave and Charlie threaten to tell Ed that Brandon refused their help, however, Brandon hires them. Back at the doctor's office, Ed gets suspicious about Brandon's response and sends Dave and Charlie out to the Dawson ranch. After they leave, Ed recognizes Dave and Charlie from a wanted poster but casts his suspicions aside because they saved his life. On their way to Dawson's ranch, Ed's spunky kid sister Mary ambushes Dave and Charlie but runs off after Dave disarms her. At the Dawson ranch, Dave accuses trail boss Red of double-crossing Dawson, when he finds Red trying to recruit men for Colter's drive. A fistfight ensues between the men, and after Dave wins, Dawson invites him to be the trailboss for the drive to Abilene. At the saloon, Red tells Colter that the Dawson herd, with over 1,000 head and only eight men to drive it, does not have a chance of beating them. Meanwhile Dave finds out that the rest of the Dawson men are in jail because Colter's men filed trumped-up charges against them. Dave sends Charlie to bail the crew out but, hoping to save his boss some cash, Charlie uses his confederate-issue money instead of Dave's. The next morning as both herds head toward Abilene, Charlie proudly tells Dave he slipped the sheriff the worthless money and Dave scolds him for giving the sheriff a reason to follow them. At the ranch, Mary discovers the wanted poster, which confirms her suspicions about Dave's character. Mary races to the sheriff's office, and after she easily identifies Dave and Charlie as the horse thieves from pictures, the sheriff leaves with her to track them down and save Dawson's herd. Ed, now fully recovered, goes ahead of the sheriff and Mary to warn Dave and Charlie about the trouble. At nightfall on the trail, Colter's gang stampede Dawson's herd, but Dave and Charlie turn the herd around. Red returns to Colter and tells him that the Dawson herd is now too exhausted to beat them to Abilene. Meanwhile Charlie finds out that Red is planning to run the Colter herd through the same shortcut pass as the Dawson herd and devises his own plan. That night he lets loose Dave's horse, Whitey, and the stallion rounds up and leaves with most of both camps' horses. The next morning Mary and the sheriff arrive at the Colter camp where Colter's men claim Dave has stolen their horses. Ed catches up with Dave and Charlie just as they find the herd of missing horses. Dave explains that every time Whitey gets loose, true to his nature, he takes every horse with him. Colter's men approach and Dave sends Ed off to get some help. Just as Red and the gang are about to hang Dave for the crime, Ed returns with the sheriff and saves Dave. Everyone rides to the valley, where a demonstration by Whitey clears Dave and Charlie of the horse stealing charges. The sheriff deputizes Dave, who then chases Red on horseback and engages him in a gun and fistfight. Weakened by Dave's powerful blows, Red finally confesses to the stampede and reveals that Brandon framed Dawson's cowboys. The sheriff arrests Brandon, Slavens and Red for their crimes and then turns to Charlie about the bad bail money. Charlie smugly argues that because the charges against the men were false, the bail money was not necessary and pardons himself. Mary apologizes to Dave for her misgivings about him, and he forgives her and rides off to finish the job of herding Dawson's cattle to Abilene.