After the stagecoach he and pretty Linda Forbes are traveling in is robbed by outlaws, Steve McLain decides to stop and check out the law in the nearby town. Upset by the arrival of this suspicious, sharpshooting stranger, Sheriff Pegg and crooked saloon owner Ace Pringle conspire to have him killed. Steve repeatedly outsmarts his would-be attackers, however, intimidating the sheriff and his cohort, Rusty Wilson, into fits of fright. Convinced that Steve has his eye on a strongbox of money due out on the next coach, Pringle instructs his outlaws to ambush and kill him by a river. Linda, suspecting foul play, rides to the river and rescues Steve as he floats unconscious with the current. That night, before Pringle and his men arrive, Steve takes the strongbox from the stagecoach company safe, and an angry sheriff forms a posse to catch him. After being chased by both posse and outlaws, Steve does battle with Pringle and finally reveals that he is an "under cover man" for Wells Fargo & Co. With the outlaws exposed and captured, Steve then marries Linda.