Gangster's Den

After helping rancher Ruth Lane chase Dent and Burk, two menacing trespassers, from her land, gold mine owners Billy Carson and Fuzzy Jones ride to town. There, greedy lawyer Horace Black, whom Ruth suspects sent the trespassers as part of a plan to drive her and her brother Jimmy off their land, offers to buy Billy and Fuzzy's mine, but they refuse to sell. Black also wants to purchase the town saloon, as he believes that the entrance to an old, prosperous gold mine lies underneath it, but cannot convince owner Taylor to sell. When a drunken Jimmy, having gambled away his money, asks Black for a loan, Black agrees to lend him $2,000, but tricks him into signing over his ranch deed instead of an IOU. At the saloon, meanwhile, Fuzzy chides Taylor about how he runs the establishment, but Taylor dismisses Fuzzy's concerns and refuses to tell him what lies beneath the property. After Black comes in and again unsuccessfully tries to persuade Taylor to sell, Taylor confesses to Fuzzy that he is terrified of Black. Unaware that Curt, one of Black's henchmen, is eavesdropping, Taylor then convinces Fuzzy to buy his saloon so he can get out of town. Curt reports the sale to Black, who then orders Curt to kill Taylor and ambush Fuzzy. Fuzzy sneaks back to the mine and takes all the gold from the safe, but just before Curt and his men attack, Ruth happens by and, realizing their intent, shoots at Curt before riding off to get Billy and Jimmy to help. In the ensuing scuffle, Jimmy is wounded in the shoulder, and while Billy escorts him home, Fuzzy races back to town to complete the sale of the saloon. Before departing, Taylor reveals what is underneath the saloon to Fuzzy. Billy, who has deduced what Fuzzy has done with their money, forgives his friend and informs him that, on his way into town, he saw Taylor's dead body and no sign of the gold. At the Lane ranch, meanwhile, a deputy attempts to serve Ruth and Jimmy with Black's eviction notice. Jimmy is outraged by Black's duplicity and shoots the deputy in the shoulder. On the trail outside town, Billy sees the wounded deputy riding by, but later, Black informs Billy that Jimmy shot the deputy in the chest and shows him the dead body. That night, Billy spies Black burning the deputy's shirt in his office and later pulls it from the flames. Discovering only one bullet hole in the shirt, Billy knows that Jimmy did not kill the deputy. Hoping to trap Black and his men, Billy tells Fuzzy to spread a rumor that Taylor is at the Lane ranch. Fuzzy then informs Curt that he is anxious to sell the saloon to Black. After Billy shows the deputy's burnt shirt to the sheriff, the two of them ride to the Lane ranch, where Dent and Burk are lurking. Billy traps Dent into revealing he murdered Taylor and after reassuring Ruth and Jimmy that their ranch is safe, he and the sheriff escort Dent to town. While Black pays Fuzzy for the saloon with the gold he stole from Taylor, Burk tells Curt that Dent is under arrest. Curt assumes that Black has double-crossed them and hurries to the saloon to confront him. There is a shootout and Curt is shot but kills Black before dying. Later, after revealing that Taylor was storing weaving looms under the trap door, the business-weary Fuzzy tells his cook, Webb, he is now the new saloon keeper.