 In the 16th film of Republic s "Three Mesquiteer" series (while 1935 s "Powdersmoke Range" and "The Law of the 45 s" were based on or featured characters created by William Colt MacDonald, they are not, as shown on Movie Connections, part of the Republic or Three Mesquiteers series and the name "The Three Mesquiteers" was never mentioned in either film, especially the last mentioned as it only featured two of the characters and one of them had a different name.) Stony Brooke (Bob Livingston), Tucson Smith (Ray Corrigan) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune), the "Three Mesquiteers", capture a couple of escaped convicts, Red (Le Roy Mason) and The Kid (James Eagles) and learn that Red, despite having only three months left on his sentence, engineered the escape in order that the "Kid" might get out in the open and save his lungs from the deplorable prison conditions. They return the two convicts to the prison after promising to do all they can to secure their release. They meet with the prison board and learn that the prison is badly overcrowded, but due to the fact that the ranchers of the state are already overtaxed, it is impossible to get the funds to build a new prison. The Mesquiteers suggest that the trustees of the prison be sent to ranches throughout the state where they can work out their time. Thirteen prisoners are paroled to the Mesquiteers, including Red and the Kid. Beaton (Roy Barcroft), head of the Atlas Construction Company, angling to get the job of building a new prison knows that if the "parolee" plan works, it will cost his company thousands of dollars, but the plot doesn t explain where the money for a new prison would come from since the "parolee plan" is based on inability to build a new prison because of lack of funds. With two assistants, Connors (Carleton Young) and Crane (John Beach) and an actress named Madelyn (Priscilla Lawson), Beaton lays plans the overthrow the experiment.