Following the end of the Civil War, "Rusty" Reynolds and his pal, Clem Barrett, are on their way to the California gold-fields when they come upon the massacre of a wagon train by Jack Carson and his gang of renegades. When the Sheriif arrives, they are mistaken as being part of the gang, arrested, tried and convicted, and sentenced to hang by Judge Coleman. On the night before the hanging, they are released from jail (in a staged jail-break) and the sheriff directs them to go to a cabin and meet a man. The man is the Judge who sentenced them to hang, but knows that Reynolds isn't the gang-leader Carson, for Carson is the judge's son. The judge asks "Rusty" and Clem to follow the gang, and bring his son back for trial.
—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>