William R. Thompkins

Rowdy Yates rescues a legendary old pioneer from a lynch rope, but must pursue him into the mountains when the pioneer escapes. After disentangling Josh Green, a fabled trailblazer of the Old West, from a lynch rope, Rowdy Yates assumes responsibility for bringing him to a fair trial at the next town. Green's lovely half-breed daughter, Sara, recently returned from an education in the east, is profuse in her thanks while her father, actually innocent of the murder charge, only grins sardonically through his beard. That night the old renegade overpowers his guard and escapes into the mountains with his daughter, both riding stolen horses. Rowdy goes after them and Green is utterly amazed when Rowdy steps into the light of his campfire that night with a leveled rifle. But as Rowdy leads Green and Sara down the mountain, their progress is halted by Kiowa Indian Chief Buffalo Horn, an old friend of Green's.

An ambitious drover (Neville Brand) causes a stampede which leaves Favor injured and Rowdy in temporary command.

A new drover wounds the younger brother of a cattleman in a gun battle he sought to avoid and the cattleman vows vengeance. Little Sam Talbot, a brash, young, would-be gunfighter and the brother of Big Sam, the richest cattleman in the territory, decide that Gil Favor is newest drover, Owen Spencer, is really Jack Jennings, supposedly the fastest man alive with a gun. Spencer denies it, but Little Sam won't let it rest; he draws on Spencer. Spencer defends himself instinctively and shoots his assailant in the chest. Gil and Spencer take the wounded boy to Crooked Hat where Big Sam vows that if his brother dies; both Spencer and Gil will also die. That evening Little Sam does die and Big Sam calls a town meeting which he quickly turns into a lynch mob. Then he leads the mob to the saloon where Gil and Spencer are awaiting the return of the town's sheriff.

Rowdy quits after an argument with Favor, then becomes a trail boss himself and promises to outrace his old boss to a railhead.

A bounty hunter joins Gil Favor's drovers and each fears he may be the hunter's quarry. John Shepard, a bounty hunter posing as a drover, joins the drive and is recognized by two of the hands. Disclosure of his true occupation turns all the drovers against him and a couple of them, headed by Clay Forrester, put pressure on trail boss Gil Favor to- fire the newcomer. Gil refuses to be intimidated and becomes increasingly surly and recalcitrant until Mushy provokes a "confession" period, during which most of the drovers reveal that at some time each of them has done something for which a bounty could be placed on his head. Cracking under the strain of uncertainty, Girard, one of the drovers, draws on Shepard. When Rowdy Yates tries to disarm him, the gun goes off and Rowdy is wounded in the chest. After Girard rides out of the camp, Rowdy learns who Shepard is really after.

The drovers aid an itinerant undertaker with a broken hearse, which he uses not for funerals, but for printing counterfeit money. Gil Favor and Rowdy Yates happen upon an authentic, obviously city-made hearse and its cheerful owner, Poke Tolliver, while scouting grazing land in the heart of Indian territory. Stranded with a broken wheel, Tolliver asks if he may seek protection from surrounding Indians by joining the drive. The protection is granted and soon Tolliver and the drovers sit down to a friendly game of poker, during which the buryin' man is neatly separated from his, money. Undaunted, he excuses himself and retires to his hearse where, inside, with the help of a complete counterfeiting setup, he prints some new money. The following morning two more travelers seek the drovers' protection: Cole Striker and Georgia, Poke's erstwhile partners in crime who have been trailing him ever since he ran out on them in St. Louis.