The setting of the story is Mexico. Violent bandit and cattle rustler Pancho, his rude henchman Santas and a group of raiders have sworn to drive the settlers out of the Border country. In the conflict that follows, Harry's father Bill is mortally wounded, and Pancho's hands are crushed, supposedly by the ranchers, though the act is actually committed by his traitorous and vengeful lieutenant Santas and his equally slimy compatriot Rodriguez, whom Pancho has offended by denying one his daughter's hand, and the other permission to pursue Rancher's daughter Ruth Chadwick. Pancho swears bitter revenge on the Burrels and the two factions resolve to destroy each other.

When the body of Wall Street broker Norman Temple is found dead in his office, the police arrest contractor James Borden for the crime on the testimony of Temple's secretary that Borden had threatened her employer over an unpaid note. Also under suspicion is Temple's Japanese valet, who quarreled with his employer the day before the murder. Tex, a detective, enters the case, following his own leads which prove the valet innocent. Tex finally deduces that Minkin, one of Temple's clerks, shot his employer when he interrupted the clerk robbing his safe. With Tex's revelation, Minkin's room is searched, the stolen bonds found and Borden is freed.