 Riding the plains with Little Beaver (Don Kay Reynolds) and Buckskin Blodgett (Emmett Lynn), Red Ryder (Jim Bannon) encounters bandits trying to hold up the stagecoach carrying Libby Brooks (Peggy Stewart), owner of the Devil s Hole newspaper, and her brother Gerry (Gaylord Pendleton.) Red drives off the attackers. Gerry prints an editorial condemning gunmen and Frenchy Beaumont (Edwin Max), owner of the hotel and saloon, tells his henchman Blackjack Keno (Jack O Shea) to kill Gerry. Red prevents this but Frenchy, an expert duellist, challenges Gerry and in a duel kills him. Red hears about the duel from his aunt Duchess (Marin Sais) and Gerry s sweetheart Marge (Jean Budinger) but arrives too late to stop it. Red joins Libby in a fight against Frenchy and his gang, and tries to jail Frenchy, but fails as the Sheriff (Stanley Blystone) and Judge Prescott (William Fawcett) jails Frenchy s henchman Pinto (Billy Hammond) but are forced to free Frenchy on lack of evidence. Red challenges Frenchy to a duel but he is badly wounded. While recovering he wonders why he failed to hit Frenchy, and then thinks he knows why Frenchy always manages to kill expert gunmen who are his opponents, but is never hit himself. Recovered, he goes looking for Frenchy for a rematch.