The Man from Hell

After spending three years in jail on a trumped-up stagecoach robbery charge, cowboy Clint Mason returns to Bonanza City, his home town. While reporting to Sheriff Jake, his parole officer, Clint learns about a series of stagecoach robberies that have occurred in the area, during which large sums in gold dust have been stolen. That night, Clint, who must go unarmed as part of his parole agreement, rides to see his sweetheart, Nancy Campbell, the daughter of local bank manager Colonel Campbell. When he arrives, he interrupts a meeting between the colonel and Anse McCloud, Bonanza City's new corrupt mayor. Through his prison contacts, Clint has learned that McCloud actually is Trig Kelso, an escaped murderer. In addition, Clint suspects that McCloud's gold mine is worthless and that the money he claims to earn from the mine actually is gotten by illegal means. Unknown to Clint, however, McCloud has evidence that the colonel mishandled bank funds and is blackmailing Nancy into accepting his marriage proposal. Consequently, when Clint accuses McCloud of being an imposter, Nancy comes to McCloud's defense and says that she is in love with him. After a discouraged Clint leaves the colonel's, he foils an ambush attempt by two of McCloud's henchmen. Then, in town, McCloud challenges Clint to a fist fight but loses. Because of the fight, Clint is arrested by Lon Kelly, a marshal on McCloud's payroll, for breaking the conditions of his parole. Before he is put in jail, however, Clint is rescued by his old friend Sandy, a blacksmith, who forces Kelly at gunpoint to release his prisoner. Unaware of Clint's escape, McCloud orders his henchmen to storm the jail and lynch Clint. Instead of Clint, however, the outlaws hang an unfortunate hobo. Clint, meanwhile, learns from Nancy about McCloud's blackmailing and, after apprising her of her fiancé's true identity, rides to find Gillis, a cowboy who has knowledge of McCloud's past. When he arrives, he finds Gillis dying from a blow delivered earlier by McCloud, but is able to extract a confession from Gillis about McCloud's identity. Later, Clint explores McCloud's phony mine and overhears one of McCloud's men discussing facts concerning his frame-up. After Clint wires the Arizona penitentiary for help in arresting McCloud, he finds Sandy dead, a victim of the mayor. While McCloud arranges for his men to hold up the bank and kidnap Nancy, a vigilante group gathers in town to round up the outlaws. Clint then rides in to town with Timmy, a young cripple who witnessed McCloud's murder of Sandy. Supported by Timmy's description, Clint implicates McCloud as the gang leader and is shot at by Kelly, who then is seized by the angry vigilantes. Clint forces Kelly to reveal McCloud's robbery and kidnapping plot and convinces the vigilantes not to hang the marshal but arrest him legally. With help from the vigilantes, Clint eventually foils McCloud's robbery and rescues Nancy from his clutches. Although wounded in the fight, Clint receives a $5,000 reward from his former prison warden and is nursed lovingly by a grateful Nancy.