Rustlers' Hideout

While on a cattle drive from Montana to Wyoming, head wrangler Billy Carson pauses at Medicine Pass, the gorge that spans the state border. Because rustlers routinely stalk the pass, Billy, accompanied by his sidekick, Fuzzy Jones, insists on scouting the area before allowing the herd to go through. In the Wyoming town of Teton City, meanwhile, banker Harry Stanton and saloon owner Buck Shaw, the covert leaders of the rustlers, plot to take over the Crockett Packing Plant by fleecing the owner's son, Jack Crockett, at the gambling table. After riding through the pass, Billy continues to Teton City and proceeds to the saloon. When he begins to suspect that Hammond, the card dealer, is cheating Jack, Billy asks Jack to let him take his seat at the table. After Billy proves that Hammond is using a stacked deck, a fight ensues and the sheriff orders Hammond to leave town. When Hammond threatens to expose Shaw's connection to the rustlers, Shaw pulls out a gun and warns him to keep quiet. The greedy Hammond decides to sell the information to Billy and asks him to accompany him to the outskirts of town. Seeing the two engaged in conversation, Shaw follows them. Outside of town, Billy accuses Hammond of stacking the deck, and the two begin to fight again. After Billy knocks Hammond out, he decides to find out why Shaw was so anxious to force Jack into debt and rides off to investigate. After Billy leaves, Hammond regains consciousness and Jack appears and demands repayment of his gambling money. When Hammond slugs Jack, Jack pulls his gun, and a shot rings out from behind the bushes, killing Hammond. Thinking that he has killed Hammond, Jack flees, and when the sheriff discovers Hammond's body, he remembers seeing Billy ride off with the dealer and issues a warrant for Billy's arrest. Billy, meanwhile, decides to talk to Jack's father Dave, the owner of the Crockett Packing Plant and the Triangle Star ranch. While riding to the ranch, Billy meets Dave's daughter Barbara, and the two continue to the ranch together. There, Stanton, determined to gain control of both the ranch and the packing company, coerces Dave into putting up his company and ranch as collateral for the bank note that is due in five days. Stanton then plans to steal Billy's herd in Medicine Pass, thus driving Dave into bankruptcy. When Billy arrives at the ranch and insists that Dave accept delivery of the cattle on the Montana side of the border, thus avoiding the danger of the pass, Stanton interrupts the conversation and accuses Billy of Hammond's murder. After refusing to drive the cattle through the pass, Billy leaves the ranch and is stopped by the sheriff, who informs him that Hammond was killed by a derringer. The sheriff then arrests Billy, but Fuzzy appears and frees his friend. Riding to Teton City, Fuzzy and Billy go to the packing company office to talk to Jack. When Jack confesses to killing Hammond with his six- shooter, Billy assures him that Hammond was murdered with a derringer. Billy then asks Jack to assemble a patrol of men to insure safe passage of the cattle. Upon learning of Billy's plan, Shaw instructs the rustlers to stampede the cattle at the Montana border, thus preventing them from crossing the state line. When the rustlers attack, Billy apprehends one of the gang and then allows him to escape so that he and Fuzzy can follow the outlaws back to his camp. Upon discovering the rustlers' hideout and the stolen cattle, Billy instructs Fuzzy to hold the outlaws prisoner while he arranges for Jack and his patrol to escort the cattle into Wyoming. Learning that the herd has been recovered, Stanton and Shaw plot to poison the animals when they stop to drink at the water hole. While riding the range, Dave and Barbara witness Stanton and Shaw dumping poison into the water hole, and Dave sends Barbara to warn Billy. After Shaw spies Dave watching in the hills, he shoots him and captures Barbara. As Billy and the herd approach the water hole, the wounded Dave warns him that Shaw and Stanton have poisoned the water. Recalling that he saw Stanton riding toward town, Billy follows him. Meanwhile, in town, Stanton is emptying the bank's safe when Shaw enters and shoots him. Billy then bursts in and a fight ensues. After the sheriff arrives and stops the fight, Billy pulls a derringer from Shaw's pocket, proving that Shaw murdered Hammond. The sheriff arrests Shaw, and Billy frees Barbara and then returns to help Jack complete the cattle drive to Wyoming.