Shortly after the Goldfield stagecoach leaves town, it is robbed by a phantom outlaw. While the outlaw's gang diverts the stage's escort, the outlaw takes its shipment of gold, being careful not to harm anyone. Via the stagecoach driver, the outlaw sends a message to Williams, Goldfield's crooked banker, declaring that he is repaying himself for losses incurred when Williams, due to a legal technicality, took ownership of his mine, thereby cheating him of his livelihood. A posse trails the outlaw, wounding him in the chase, and he drags himself to the shack where he lives with his teenage son Tim. When the sheriff arrives, he recognizes the dying outlaw as Slim Braddock and tells him that the town of Goldfield is on his side. Before he dies, Slim asks his son to avenge the injustice that the actions of Williams have fostered. Several years later, Tim, now a grown man and the image of his father, attends the trial of Slim's old friend, Pete Brennan, who is about to lose his Blue Ridge gold mine to Williams and his shifty lawyers. In the courtroom, Tim becomes reacquainted with Pete's daughter Helen, who had been a childhood friend. This time the judge rules against Williams, prompting Williams to instruct his henchmen to rob the stage carrying Pete's gold to the bank. Tim retrieves Pete's gold and returns it to him, but Helen nevertheless considers Tim a troublemaker, despite having promised to marry him when she was a girl of eight. Tim later convinces Pete to reject a bid for his land and mine from the local Jepson Mining Co., an outfit he suspects has ulterior motives. Helen resents Tim's influence on her father; however, unknown to all, Jepson is an ally of Williams, and has secretely tunneled under Pete's land, discovering a new vein of gold. Tim's suspicions are confirmed when, in the vicinity of Pete's mine, he spots Bailey, a hired explosives expert, who he subsequently locks in the mine. Jepson realizes what has happened and locates Bailey, but leaves him imprisoned, planning to blow up the Blue Ridge mine himself. To cover their trail just before the fuse is set, Williams sets off to kill Bailey, but finds Tim instead. Tim easily overpowers Williams and holds him captive until he admits his part in the scheme, after which Tim and Bailey escape just before the explosion. Williams, however, fails to follow Tim's directions and gets stuck in the mineshaft. Jepson is captured and sent off to face justice, and a grateful Helen apologizes to Tim.