In 1878, when a stagecoach en route to Albuquerque, New Mexico, is ambushed, one man is killed, and passenger Celia Wallace is robbed of ten thousand dollars. Passenger Cole Armin fights the assailants, then saves a little girl named Myrtle Walton from the runaway coach. In town, when Celia and her brother Ted realize Cole is the nephew of John Armin, who has been bankrupting his freight competitors by nefarious means, they snub him. Cole demands the Wallaces' money from Armin, and has his uncle's henchman, Jackson, arrested for the stagecoach murder. Cole then returns the money to the Wallaces, and becomes business partners with Ted. After Jackson threatens to expose Armin, Sheriff Linton, whom Armin controls, allows Jackson to escape so that Armin's henchman, Steve Murkil, can kill him. Later, Armin hires Letty Tyler to spy on Cole and Ted and, using her information, attempts to sabotage their shipments by blowing up one of their contract mines and shooting Ted in the leg. Furious about being used as an accomplice in attempted murder, Letty confronts Armin, then leaves her gloves in his office. Cole finds the gloves and confronts Letty at the same time that Armin burns his own office to frame Cole for arson. The sheriff arrests Cole, and at his trial, Letty testifies that Cole was at her house when the fire occurred. Letty's confession causes Celia, who has since become engaged to Cole, to refuse to marry him. Cole is acquitted, but the judge places him and Armin under a peace order, so that when Murkil attacks Cole, he must risk arrest to defend himself. Letty, however, threatens to expose Armin if he has Cole arrested. While Cole joins his sidekick, Juke, in the dangerous climb to a mountain-top mine, Letty exonerates Cole with Celia and Ted. Celia then races to warn Cole that per Armin's orders, Matt Wayne and his gang of killers are waiting to ambush him in town. Later, while executing the dangerous descent from the mountain, Cole nearly sends Juke and his mules to their deaths because of a break that had been tampered with by Armin's gang. When Cole and Juke arrive in town, a shootout begins, during which Cole shoots the sheriff and Murkil, and Juke is shot in the hand. The U.S. Cavalry arrives in time to end the gunfight, and Armin is shot dead in the mêlée. Later, Juke, who resisted marriage to Pearl, the town barber, because she wanted to cut off his beard, finally agrees to a shave.