Billy the Kid's Fighting Pals

Billy the Kid and his friends, Fuzzy and Jeff, who are perpetually on the run from the law, head for the border town of Paradise, where they hope Billy's identity will not be known. While riding, they hear shots and find a badly wounded marshal, who tells them that a secret committee in Paradise sent for him to investigate a smuggling ring. When the men arrive in Paradise, Billy tells Fuzzy, who had helped himself to the marshal's badge, to pose as the lawman and find out what is going on. Fuzzy is soon intercepted by members of the secret committee, who tell him that the town's merchants are being terrorized and driven out by a criminal element. At a Paradise café, meanwhile, Billy and Jeff watch as outlaws Burke and Badger force the newspaper editor, Mason, to leave town. Badger proceeds to auction off the newspaper, and Billy outbids the others, then easily defeats Badger in a fight while Lopez, the bartender, draws up the contract. The town banker, Hardy, and his ward Ann are congratulating Billy when word comes that Mason has been shot to death. While Ann helps Billy clean up the newspaper office, Hardy, who unknown to Billy is the mastermind behind the town's illegal operations, confers with Badger about his plan to drive the merchants into bankruptcy in order to acquire their property and build a smuggling tunnel under the border. Meanwhile, a visiting sheriff comes into the marshal's office offering a reward for Billy, who has been falsely accused of murder. Still posing as the marshal, Fuzzy alters the description of the fugitive and assigns Billy and Jeff to print the "wanted" posters. Later, Hardy's men try to lure Fuzzy into an ambush, but Billy intervenes, so the outlaws decide to attack Billy while he is escorting Ann home. Once again, Billy thwarts the ambush and leaves Ann with the bound Badger while he pursues the others. When he returns with Jeff, Ann is alone, claiming that Badger broke his bonds and escaped. Billy, who had suspected that Ann was looking for something at the newspaper office, concludes that Badger and Hardy are in business together. Back in town, Fuzzy prevails in a shootout with Hardy's henchmen and locks Badger in jail. There, Badger tells Billy about Hardy's plan, but one of Hardy's henchmen overhears the interrogation and deduces Billy's true identity. When Hardy sends for the sheriff, Ann hurries to the jail to see Badger, with whom she is in love. Billy takes Ann and Badger to the café, where Lopez, who is actually a Mexican secret service agent, gives him affidavits confirming Hardy's smuggling operation, the same documents Ann had been searching for in the newspaper office. When the sheriff arrives, Lopez gives him the evidence, and Hardy and Badger are arrested. Billy and his friends escape from Paradise, shooting some of the letters off the sign at the town entrance before riding off.