"Lightning" Bill Carson, aided by his sidekick, "Magpie" McGilliuddy, is looking for the man who killed his partner, Jim Parker. He suspects Jim Burrows (who signs the reward poster he wrote as Ed Burrows)and Burrows also holds a mortgage on the ranch ran by brother and sister Ed and Molly Arden, as he is aware that Ed has discovered gold on the property. He has his gang take many tactics in order to get control of the Arden property, but rustling isn't one of them as there is not a cow or bull or heifer, nor a cattle herd, anywhere in sight in this film. Posing as an outlaw known as 'The Phantom", and working as the house-dealer in Reno's saloon, Carson begins to close the loop around Burrows.
—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>