Thundering Trails

In the town of Monroe, Texas, Troop M of the lawmaking Texas Rangers is facing termination due to government cutbacks. Just as the troop's leader, Captain Sam Brooke asks Judge Morgan for more money but is refused, Ben Walker arrives and asks Sam to protect one of his coaches carrying a shipment of gold. Ben becomes concerned when he realizes that Sam must guard the stage alone because the main Rangers, Sam's older son "Stony," "Tucson" Smith and "Lullaby" Joslin, who are known as The Three Mesquiteers, are busy. In the stage, Sam's younger son Johnny, a New Mexico policeman, accompanies Ben's daughter Edith across the border. Though he considers the Rangers pitifully underfunded and had planned to head back as soon as they reached the Texas border, he decides to ride along out of concern for Sam. The stage is ambushed and when Sam is shot in the back, Johnny shoots the attacker's trigger hand as he is fleeing. The Mesquiteers show up in time for the dying Sam to ask Stony to carry on his quest to maintain the Rangers. The Mesquiteers ask Johnny to join them, but Johnny refuses and stays to search for the man with the scarred trigger hand. After the Mesquiteers leave for Austin to request funds from the state commissioner, the judge asks Johnny to head up a local police force backed by the citizens. In Austin, the commissioner insists that the raggedy Rangers be closed, and tells them about Johnny's new position. Back at the Monroe police station, Ben informs the Mesquiteers that he has refused to pay extortion money demanded by the new police force, and asks for their protection. While the crooked judge and his henchman, Cantrell, eavesdrop, the Mesquiteers try to convince Johnny that the police force is corrupt, but even after they stop a raid on Ben's ranch perpetrated by Cantrell, Johnny does not believe them. A few days later, Edith sees how worried Ben is about an approaching $30,000 shipment and asks Johnny to guard it, unaware that Cantrell is again eavesdropping and is going to arrange an ambush of the stage. Meanwhile, the Mesquiteers guard the stage for Ben, but when they do, Johnny arrives just late enough to miss the gang and only sees the Mesquiteers emptying the stage of its money. Cantrell, protecting himself, tells Johnny that the Mesquiteers attacked the stage. Johnny is confused and jails the men while Cantrell hires outlaw Mollison to kill Ben so he cannot clear the Mesquiteers' names. Upon hearing Ben is dead, the Mesquiteers escape from jail and capture Mollison in an abandoned mine. As Tucson and Stony confront Mollison, whose trigger hand is scarred, with evidence that he killed Sam, Johnny, backed by Cantrell and his men, ropes Lullaby and holds up the remaining two. Stony finally convinces Johnny of their innocence by showing him Mollison's scar. After Cantrell orders his men to tie up Johnny, Stony and Tucson, Lullaby escapes from his ropes and causes a distraction inside the mine. A big fistfight then ensues which the Mesquiteers win. Later, the commissioner names Stony as the captain of the reinstated Texas Rangers, and Stony arrests the judge as his first official act.