Sinister Journey

Hopalong Cassidy and his pals, California Carlson and Lucky Jenkins, have been asked to go to the town of Wheeler by an old friend of Hoppy's, Tom Smith, vice-president of the local railroad company. On their way into town, they encounter Lee Garvin and his wife Jessie, who is suffering from locoweed poisoning, which Hoppy is able to cure. After Lee invites them all to stay for supper, Hoppy learns that Lee, a brakeman on the railroad, believes that their well was deliberately poisoned on orders from his father-in-law, Tom Smith, who does not approve of his daughter's marriage to him. In Wheeler, Hoppy meets Smith and his secretary, Harmon Roberts, and Smith tells Hoppy that he and the railroad have been experiencing a series of accidents and he suspects that Lee, knowing that Elaine will inherit her father's considerable wealth, is responsible. However, Tom does not want to fire Lee as that would only further alienate his daughter. Hoppy, California and Lucky are given jobs with the railroad while they try to determine who is behind the accidents. When Lee suspects that the trio has been hired to keep an eye on him, he gets into a fistfight with Lucky. Later, after another near-miss accident, Tom tells Hoppy that he had hoped that Jessie and Roberts would become romantically involved. One day, Lee rousts a hobo, Ben Watts, who turns out to have served time in prison with him. Later, after Hoppy sees Lee giving Watts money to leave town, Lee and Jessie have an argument and she goes back to live with her father. Roberts, who along with railroad yard boss Banks is behind the accidents, shoots at Tom, grazing him, then drops Watts's scarf at the scene to implicate him and Lee. Hoppy goes to see Lee, who is packing to leave, and tells him that he is about to be arrested for hiring Watts to shoot Tom. After Lee admits to Hoppy that he is an ex-convict, Hoppy tells the marshal when he arrives that Lee has left. The next day, Hoppy tells Jessie, who now wants to go back East, that Lee had nothing to do with the shooting. Hoppy finds Watts but before he can tell him much, Roberts kills him, claiming that he was about to draw a gun on Hoppy. Hoppy is convinced that Roberts is behind all the trouble and persuades Lee to go to see his father-in-law and tell him his entire story. Lee agrees but is slugged by Roberts, who then shoots and kills Tom, framing Lee. Roberts tells Hoppy that Lee pulled the trigger just as he knocked him out. However, Lee has disappeared and soon "wanted" posters appear offering a $500 reward for his capture. Hoppy and his pals feel compelled to find Lee before the lawmen do, as he is likely to be shot on sight. Jessie tells Hoppy that her father left her nothing and that Roberts has shown her papers transferring her father's railroad interests to him. Although Hoppy knows about oil land that Tom had in Oklahoma, Jessie is unaware and leaves to join Roberts on a train headed East. After Hoppy locates Lee, they and their pals manage to stop the train by switching it onto a siding. Hoppy bluffs the marshal into believing that Banks has turned state's evidence against Roberts, who then gives himself away and is arrested. Lee and Jessie get back together again, and Hoppy, California and Lucky head back to the Bar-20.