Diamond Trail

At a New York harbor, reporter Speed Morgan witnesses the murder of Joe Thomas, the bodyguard for racketeer and diamond thief Flash Barret, by a hit man for a rival gang who confuses Thomas with Barret. As police arrive, Speed helps Barret escape and identifies himself to the appreciative Barret as "Frisco Eddie." When Speed returns to his office to write the story, his editor and a police officer induce him to become Barret's new bodyguard to gain information about his operation, which involves hijacking diamonds that already have been stolen by other thieves. Barret readily offers Speed the job, and with three other gang members, they travel West to find Bill Miller, a go-between who failed to send Barret a shipment worth $90,000. When Miller sees them arrive in town, he rides to his ranch and instructs his sister Lois, who does not know about his involvement, to say that she has not seen him. When Barret interrogates Lois and squeezes her arm causing her pain, Speed orders him to stop and Barret backs down. To find Miller in the surrounding hills, they purchase a fast horse and a cowboy outfit for Speed to wear, but as he changes clothes, Barret finds his press badge and calls him a double-crosser. They fight and after Speed escapes through a window, he rides to the Miller ranch, where Miller refuses to heed his warning to return the shipment. Alone with his sister, Miller confesses that in Reno, Barret offered him easy money to receive packages, hold them and them send them on when notified. When he dropped the last package and its seal broke, he found diamonds, which he has kept. Speed reveals his identity and prevails on Miller to give up the diamonds, but when Speed brings the diamonds to Barret to prove that he is on the level, Barret and the gang, who have intercepted a telegram from Speed's editor, force him at gunpoint into a car to go "for a ride." While Speed's horse and a posse follows, the gang stops at a deserted spot where they knock Speed out. They prepare to drive over him, but he revives in time and rolls down a hill to safety. He gets on his horse, rides up a hill and lassoes Barret from the car, which then carries the other gang members over an embankment. As Speed prepares to leave, Lois agrees to take care of his horse until he returns, and Speed reveals that he was born and raised five miles away and broke the horse himself. Lois seems pleased that Speed is a Westerner.