Wild Brian Kent

On a train headed to Colorado Springs, Brian Kent loses $600 playing bridge to fellow members of the New York Wakefield Polo Club. When Brian writies I.O.U.s, Bob Cruikshank, the president of the club, pays Brian's debts for him and then admonishes him for dissipating his father's fortune in two years. After Cruikshank reveals that the other players want Brian to resign, Brian, taken aback, agrees and then makes the boast that for two bits he will leave the train at its present stop. Cruikshank gives Brian the two bits, and Brian departs to find himself fifteen miles from the nearest town, Hopeville, Kansas. Brian walks there through the night, and the next day, after eating a steak in a cafe, he self-confidently reveals to Phil Hanson, the owner, that he has no money on him, but that he plans to make "business connections" and pay his bill later. The owner, about to force Brian to wash dishes, is stopped by crooked entrepreneur Tony Baxter, who pays Brian's bill. Brian next goes to a gambling hall, where he begins to win. However, after he loses everything and then gets into a fight with Hanson, who also owns the hall, he is knocked cold and left in a rowboat on a lake. Brian is found by Betty Prentice, whose Aunt Sue is in danger of losing her ranch because the railroad will not accept her cattle for shipment until she pays back trade bills worth nearly $3,000. Aunt Sue has refused to make a deal with Baxter to get the money. Brian is cared for by Betty and Aunt Sue, who call him "Moses," because he was found in the bulrushes. When he learns about their difficulties, Brian offers to go to town to call his banker for a loan. In town, after Brian asks Baxter for four dollars to make a long-distance call to Cruikshank, who is in Santa Barbara for a polo match, Baxter offers to put up the money for Aunt Sue as long as she thinks that it is coming from Brian. They agree that the $3,000 is to be paid back to Baxter in thirty days, during which time Aunt Sue should be able to sell her cattle to get the money. After Brian gives Aunt Sue the money, he remains to help harvest the wheat on the property and pursue his romance with Betty; however, when Aunt Sue receives a telegram stating that her cattle must be quarantined because some of them show advanced symptoms of anthrax, Bill, the hired hand, suspects that Brian is in cahoots with Baxter, the only one in the area who owns cattle with anthrax, so that Baxter can foreclose when Aunt Sue cannot pay the $3,000. When Brian admits that Baxter provided the money, Betty, disheartened, does not believe that Brian knew nothing of Baxter's scheme. Brian goes to town and socks Baxter. After Cruikshank refuses to accept charges on his long-distance call, Brian washes dishes at the restaurant to get money and learns from an employee that Betty has entered the cross-country horse race set for the next day. He deduces that Hanson, conniving with Baxter, plans to keep Betty from winning. Brian enters the race, and when he sees Hanson try to run Betty, in the lead, off the road, Brian knocks into him, but Betty is diverted down a hill. Brian wins and gets the $500 prize money, which he uses to purchase a reaping and threshing machine. When he arrives at the ranch with the machine, he finds that Aunt Sue has left to raise enough money from her quarantined cattle to enable them to harvest their wheat. Baxter plans to destroy the wheat and sends his man Jed to disable the town's fire engine. When Brian comes to town to buy gasoline, Baxter sets the fields on fire. Seeing that the fire engine won't start, Brian and an old-timer hitch the old fire wagon to a horse and ride to the blaze. Baxter tries to chop their fire hose, but Brian sees him and fights him. The fire is put out, Baxter and Jed are arrested, and Brian and Betty kiss as they harvest their wheat.