The Texas Kid

A gang of outlaws headed by a man named Scully returns to their hideout after robbing a bank. Scully and cohort Ed become suspicious of The Kid, a notorious young outlaw from Texas who is riding with them, who claims he intercepted U.S. Marshal Jack McKenzie. When a gang member admits to having killed The Kid's father, The Kid shoots him and drops out of the gang. Jack, who goes by the name Nevada, knows The Kid and has been assigned by the government to trail the Scully gang. He joins forces with his friend, Marshal Sandy Hopkins, who is tracking The Kid. Later, Nevada and Sandy come upon a stagecoach that has just been robbed, and learn from the dying driver that this is the third time that a stage carrying ranch payrolls has been held up. While Sandy goes to the stagecoach's National City destination to investigate, Nevada heads for the Rock Bend trading post, from which the stage originated. The Kid, meanwhile, befriends Nancy, who recently sold the trading post to an Easterner named Naylor after her father was killed by bandits. Nancy confides in The Kid about the stagecoach robberies, and The Kid vows that if he were the owner of the line, he would be able to stop the robberies. Naylor, who is in cahoots with Scully, overhears their conversation and sells The Kid a partnership in the stage line and the trading post as a way of getting him on their side. Scully and his men then try to kill Nevada, but he eludes them by hiding in Sandy's wagon while Sandy poses as a traveling peddler. Sandy then informs Nevada that another stage line financed by Easterners is extending its run through Rocky Bend, which will make the land more valuable. They suspect that Naylor, who is connected with the Eastern franchise, is trying to force the ranchers out so that he can buy their valuable property. At a meeting of the ranchers, Nevada, who hopes that The Kid is going straight, supports his plan to rout the outlaws himself, and the ranchers give The Kid their payroll. Nevada and Sandy's trust in The Kid wavers after Sandy sees him meeting with Scully, but The Kid confides in Nancy that he plans to trick the outlaws. Nevada, hoping to prove The Kid's honesty, poses as a masked marauder and fires at The Kid as he is driving the stage. The Kid assumes the attack is part of his arrangement with Scully and drops off the cash box. Nevada picks it up and thinks that The Kid has sold out, but Scully later takes The Kid hostage because he never got the box. After talking with Nancy, Sandy and Nevada find the real cash box stowed on the stagecoach. They help the brutalized Kid escape from Scully's gang, but The Kid is then shot. Before he dies, he tells Nevada that he has squared himself with the law, and asks him to wish Nancy happiness. After the outlaws are arrested, the ranchers recover their money, and Nancy buys back the trading post.