Bob Carson and sidekick Grizzly take a job driving a stage for a line that is being repeatedly robbed. The culprits place a large box on the stage in which Runt can hide and steal the gold without the driver or guard knowing it. When Bob realizes what is happening, he replaces Runt in the box in hope of catching the outlaws.
When the Nevada Kid gets caught in a stage robbery, the gang leader Cherokee gets him released by forging a petition to the Governor. The Kid tries to go straight but the stage he is guarding gets robbed. When the Sheriff jails Cherokee who was not in on the robbery, the Kid gets caught effecting Cherokee's escape and finds himself in jail again.
Tom Tyler plays a small-town blacksmith, whose reckless younger brother casts his lot with a crooked politician. When brother dear steals $5000 from heroine Margaret Morris, Tyler gallantly confesses to the deed. He eventually clears himself by rallying his fellow frontiersmen to form a united front against the villains (guess he's not so "single-handed" after all).
A respected war correspondent is found murdered, with three bullets--from three different guns--in him. Three different men are arrested, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder, but only one can be the actual killer. A criminologist sets out to find who is really guilty.
Kincade and Blake cause a mail plane carrying a payroll to make a forced landing in the desert. When they try to get the money, prospectors Ted and Si drive them away. With the pilot shot, Ted takes over as pilot figuring another attempt will be made and this time the Sheriff will be there.
The Rangers in New Mexico are being disbanded but Bob Houston gets them to make one more ride. They go after the outlaw gang led by Hashknife. They catch Hashknife, but he escapes taking Barbara with him and Bob and Slim have to go after him again.
Newspaper editor Bill Temple arrives in Boom Town planning to expose Jim Blane as a crook. When Blane's henchman Buck fails to kill Temple, Blane prepares to flee with his money. But a sudden announcement of a gold strike empties the town. Blane heads after his henchmen who have taken his money and Temple heads after Blane.
Having helped his father escape the law, Jim Curtis heads north with the Marshal chasing him. He and his pal Snicker elude the Marshall by changing clothes with two actors. Now forced to do vaudeville skits, Jim finds the man responsible for his and his father's problem working in the same saloon.
Shanghai Rose is the proprietress of a gin mill which doubles as a bordello. A murder occurs, and she is put on trial for her life. A series of flashbacks "reconstruct" the crime from several different points of view -- and as the story progresses, it becomes less and less obvious that Rich is the guilty party.
Joe has Cowboy-Race Driver Brent drive him to the border where his men slug Brent, and he shoots Stafford and takes his bonds. Brent's old friend Chuck arrives and the two head out to find the gang and recover the bonds.
An emergency at his Aunt's ranch gets Ed Randall leave from the Navy. He returns to find the water cut off and her note due the next day. When the man he seeks legal advice from is murdered, Ed is accused and he now finds himself in jail with a lynch mob forming outside.
Reporter Speed Morgan helps Flash Barrett escape from the police and this gets him into Flash's gang where he poses as a gangster. Flash and his gang head west guning for Bill Miller who failed to send some diamonds on to Flash. Speed hopes to bring Flash to justice but is in trouble when his true identity is revealed.
A woman loses all her money in the 1929 stock market crash, and in order to support her family, goes back to her previous occupation--owner of a gambling house--which her son is dead set against.
Restored by the George Eastman House in 2001, this 1928 serial was considered a “last hurrah” for the silent-era serial, and brought together some of the biggest names of the era: director J.P. McGowan, actors Francis Ford and Joe Bonomo (a carnival strongman-turned-actor), producer Trem Carr (who would later help found Monogram Pictures), and a slew of silent-era supporting icons such as Ruth Hiatt, Grace Cunard, and more. Chapter names like “The Clutching Claw,” “The Devil’s Dice, “Galloping Fury,” and “The Invisible Hand” offer all one needs to know of the film’s concerns: to promise and deliver as much action and suspense as possible, and move our intrepid hero and heroine from one perilous situation to another. One of the biggest stars of the early silent era and a successful serials director in his own right, Francis Ford was the brother of director John Ford.
Bart Morgan controls the town of Cactus City and is keeping all men away from Jane Rankin. When Johnny Day arrives and takes an interest in Jane, Morgan tries to kick him out. Johnny refuses to go and the stage is set for a showdown.
Verdugo finds a young boy on the desert and raises him as his son. Now a grown man, Dan is framed for a stagecoach robbery by Brent, the same man that shot his father and tried to take him and his mother away twenty years earlier.
A cowboy detective goes up against a gang of big-city thugs trying to set up a protection racket out west.
The railroad is building a new line, but the workers are unhappy. That's because one of the board members, hoping to oust the man in charge of the project (Rapley), has a saboteur on site. Rapley's daughter, Rose, sneaks out to the project to become their telegraph operator and, with the help of the supervisor, "Sunrise" Smith, eventually discovers the plot and helps catch the bad guys amid several thrilling train chases.
For revenge the outlaw Morgan steals the Carruthers young son. Seventeen years later Carruthers arrives in the valley where Morgan, his gang, and the now grown Bob hide. After Morgan shoots Tracy, he tells Bob that Carruthers did it and sends Bob out after him. But unknown to Bob, Morgan has put blanks in his gun.
Brokaw, the Polka Dot Bandit, asks Farrell to help rob Wells Fargo. Farrell plans to capture Brokaw for the reward but is assumed to be one of the bandits and shot. Brent captures Brokaw, but Ann thinking her father is in on the robbery lets him go. Brent catches up with him only to be framed when the polka dot bandanna is found on his saddle.
