A crooked real estate manipulator sells worthless land on mortgage to flood refugees, then tries to profit by reselling the land to the state, committing murder in the process, as the Three Mesquiteers work to bring him and his gang to justice.

McCord's gang robs the stage carrying money to pay Indians for their land, and the notorious outlaw "The Oklahoma Kid" Jim Kincaid takes the money from McCord. McCord stakes a "sooner" claim on land which is to be used for a new town; in exchange for giving it up, he gets control of gambling and saloons. When Kincaid's father runs for mayor, McCord incites a mob to lynch the old man whom McCord has already framed for murder.

Billy, after shooting down land baron William Donovan's henchmen for killing Billy's boss, is hunted down and captured by his friend, Sheriff Pat Garrett. He escapes and is on his way to Mexico when Garrett, recapturing him, must decide whether to bring him in or to let him go.

Trouble starts when Bill Larkins and his two sons move in with his brother Joe. They start rustling cattle and then kill Rod's father with Joe's gun. The Sheriff and Rod think they did it and are after proof.

Kirby and Evans are pulling off an irrigation project swindle and newspaper editor Scott realizes it and sends for Lee. Lee agrees with Scott and forms a vigilante group to fight the Sheriff and his deputies brought in by Kirby. But a dying Uncle Dan sets the Sheriff straight and this brings the two sides together for the big shootout.

Bob Allen in his starring debut gets a job on Wright's ranch where he hopes to find the rustlers no one else has been able to locate. Everyone is looking for men when the actual rustler is a horse.

Sayres and his outlaw gang operate out of a town just across the border and out of the jurisdiction of the Texas Rangers. Ranger Bob Allen is sent across the border where he poses as an outlaw hoping to lure the gang back into Texas. He gets into Sayres' gang displacing the gang boss but the disgruntled ex-boss is able to expose the hoax and Bob is made a prisoner.

California's gold discovery in 1848 draws a "tide of empire" to the area, which becomes ripe for bandits.

Two young brothers are separated when their wagon train is attacked and their parents killed. One brother Cherokee is raised by Indians and the other, the Kansas Kid, by the outlaw gang leader Buff. Twenty years later they unknowingly meet again when the Kid goes after wagons being guided by Cherokee.

The parents (Horace B. Carpenter)(Vane Calvert) of Smokey Smith (Bob Steele) are murdered while traveling with a wagon train that is attacked by outlaws. Smokey swears revenge but his only possible chance lies in finding the member of the border-gang who took a ring from his father's finger. The sheriff (Earl Dwire) of a nearby border town makes Smokey a deputy after the latter saves his life when outlaws attack a stagecoach the sheriff is escorting. This enables Smokey to find the hideout of the gang that killed his parents, and he, posing as a wanted man, is able to join the gang. He soon incurs the wrath of gang-member Kent(Warner Richmond), who is jealous over the attention that Bess Bart (Mary Kornman, step-daughter of the gang-leader, "Blaze" Bart (George 'Gabby' Hayes), is showing Smokey.