Wild Horse Ambush

On the surface, Big John Harkins and his henchmen run a legitimate business catching wild horses for the glue and fertilizer market, butho Red, the young grandson of Sheriff Tom "Gramps" White, and Red's friend, Judy Dawson, are suspicious. They wonder why the cruel Harkins breaks the horses if they are soon to be slaughtered, and why only the weakest ones are captured. The children want to protect the horses because Red's horse, Arrowfire, was taken from the herd as a colt, but when they are caught sneaking around the ranch, Harkins sends them away, as he does not want his real business discovered. Harkins has abducted the famous Mexican engraving artist, Enrico Espinosa, and his daughter Lita, and forced the man through frequent beatings and threats of death to print counterfeit Mexican pesos for him. His outlaw gang has been successfully smuggling the pesos across the border, but recently a daring bandit, Jalisco, has been robbing them and they fear that if he were caught, he would be able to expose their operation. Harkins' henchman, Mace Gary, determines to get to Jalisco before the law finds him, but the clever bandit eludes him. Jalisco then tries to borrow the feisty Arrowfire to get away, but the once-wild horse allows only Red to ride him and throws Jalisco to the ground. Hoping to get the reward for his capture, Red and Judy tie up the unconscious Jalisco and deliver him to Gramps. To their surprise, Gramps introduces Jalisco as Captain Juan Reyes of the Mexican border patrol, and reveals he is working undercover with Gramps to solve the counterfeit pesos case. Reyes believes the pesos are being made in the U.S. by Espinosa, who has been missing since he left Mexico City for a tour of the States. As proof, Reyes shows Gramps a bill that is exactly like a real peso, except for Espinosa's signature in the corner, which the Mexican authorities believe is the engraver's way of alerting them. Red and Judy urge Reyes to check out the Harkins ranch, and not wanting to hurt their feelings, the captain pronounces them deputies and instructs them to report to him in Rio Blanco if they notice anything more. At the Harkins ranch, meanwhile, Mace and Harkins glue counterfeit bills under the wild horses' manes, and then drive the horses toward their natural watering hole in Mexico, where their cohorts on the Mexican side retrieve the bills. Seeing the animals stampeding south, Red and Judy wonder why they are trained only to be freed and driven back to Mexico. Taking their deputization seriously, Red reports to Reyes, and together they go to the Mexican watering hole and find counterfeit bills on several of the horses. Meanwhile, Judy sneaks into the Harkins ranch and finds a counterfeit Mexican peso. With the help of the Espinosas, she manages to escape, but is followed, and Harkins and Mace kidnap both children and tie them up at a nearby watering hole to be trampled to death by the horses. After forming a posse and finding the children missing, Gramps and Reyes check out the Harkins ranch, and the Espinosas direct them to the watering hole. Several of Harkins' men delay their departure by shooting at them, but the posse arrives and takes over arresting the outlaws. Gramps and Reyes then rush to the watering hole and encounter Mace and Harkins. They exchange gunfire as the wild horses gallop toward them, led by a killer pinto. In defense of the children, Arrowfire fights off the pinto, and leads the herd to Mexico, where Reyes has colleagues ready to collect the counterfeit money. During the gunfight, Mace and Harkins are shot, and then the children are rescued. Later, the Piute Range is declared a wild horse refuge on both sides of the border. Believing that the herd needs him, Red sadly releases Arrowfire back to the wild, but Judy reminds him that Arrowfire will always be there when Red needs him.