Two Guns and a Badge

After an innocent bystander is killed in the town of Outpost, Arizona Territory, during a gunfight between suspected cattle rustlers, the town council calls a meeting. Sheriff Jackson insists that they hire a gunman as a deputy in order to restore law and order, and although some citizens disagree, Jackson convinces them to hire a childhood friend, Hank Bartlett, who has cleaned up fifteen towns and killed eighteen men. Later, while on his way to Outpost, Bartlett is forced to shoot his injured horse and proceed on foot through a desert. Drifter Jim Blake finds Bartlett's dead body and, after taking his monogrammed guns, buries him and heads for Outpost. Near town, Jim is shot at, but is unable to catch the gunman. Jim then meets Gail Sterling, daughter of prominent rancher Bill Sterling, who, along with her fiancé, Dick Grant, was opposed to hiring a gunman. When she sees the initials on Jim's guns, she tells him she hates him and rides off. The townspeople assume that Jim is Bartlett, and after being sworn in as deputy, he and Sheriff Jackson head for the saloon, where they give the rustlers twenty-four hours to leave town. Later, suspecting that Jim is not his childhood friend, Jackson draws a gun on him and listens to his explanation. Jim admits he is not a gunman, but as he likes wearing a badge, decides to stay around and help. Meanwhile Sterling and Grant begin investigating "Bartlett's" background. The rustlers, led by Moore and his younger brother Val, decide to make it appear that they have been scared off and leave town, but intend to return to raid many herds. With peace restored to Outpost, Jim becomes quite popular and invites Gail to a dance, but she tells him about Grant. Later, the rustlers resume their raids in broad daylight, killing a rancher and injuring his wife. Jim begins to wonder if Sterling, who is still opposing him, might be behind the rustling and trails the rustlers to find out, but is caught in an ambush in which Jackson is injured. During the gunfight, Jim kills a man for the first time when he is forced to shoot Val. After Jim manages to escape with the wounded sheriff, Gail has new respect for him, but becomes suspicious when Jackson inadvertently calls Jim by his real name. After Jackson tells Jim that he recognized one of Sterling's men among the rustlers, Jim tells Gail who he really is and that her father is suspected of being the true leader of the rustlers. However, Gail does not believe Jim and tells him that her father will never allow himself to be arrested and that Jim will have to kill him. The next day, when Jim attempts to arrest Sterling, Sterling informs him that he has no authority to do so and reveals that he knows that Jim was released from Fort Leavenworth prison two months earlier after serving a three-and-a-half year sentence for armed robbery. Sterling also states that he fired the ranchhand whom Jackson saw during the ambush several months earlier. However, because Jim is a sworn deputy, Sterling surrenders while proclaiming his innocence. Suddenly, Moore rides up determined to avenge his brother's death and exchanges gunfire with Jim, who disables him. Moore then volunteers that Grant was behind all the rustling activity. When Grant rides off, Jim and a posse go after him and capture him and the entire gang. Later, Sheriff Jackson asks Jim to surrender his badge, then gives him his, as he has decided to retire. Jim accepts happy to remain in Outpost with Gail.