The Deputy

Charlotte Nelson tells Clay McCord of her concern for her younger brother, Trooper, who has fallen into a gang headed by the evil Bull Ward. McCord then arranges for Trooper to get an honest job as messenger for a mining company, transporting shipments of gold. This pleases Ward who assumes that Trooper will turn the gold over to him, but Trooper has mended his ways and when confronted and threatened by Ward while delivering the gold, shoots him. Having proven his worth, Trooper now gets his friend, Tommy -- another former member of Ward's gang -- hired to assist him in his job as messenger.

Three bank robbers come across a traveling-players' caravan. They shoot the actor-manager and two of them then kidnap Angela, one of the actresses. The third robber, Cowan, stays with the other actress, Lily, and is arrested by Simon Fry. Cowan winds up in the Silver City jail but escapes, steals a horse, and knocks down Fran McCord as he flees. Clay McCord and Herk Lamson track Cowan to a cabin where his two cronies are holed up with Angela. (One of these cronies is dying from a knife wound sustained when he and the other robber fought over Angela.) Clay and Herk arrest Cowan and Clay kills the other robber in a gunfight. Angela is then reunited with Lily.

Simon Fry arrests a ""Drifter"" for shooting a man, stealing his wife, and then shooting her. He takes the Drifter to a jail in the nearby town but, when a lynch-mob gathers, moves him on to Silver City. Following him is a landowner named Akins and several of Akins' cronies who are anxious for some quick ""justice."" Fran McCord believes the Drifter's pleas of innocence and persuades brother Clay to help Fry transport the prisoner to a trial in Prescott. Before this happens, Akins tricks the Drifter into making a jailbreak but this plan fails. On the trail to Prescott, Akins again makes a move against the Drifter which Fry and Clay thwart. Fry then reveals to Clay evidence of the Drifter's guilt.

supplying gunpowder to the Apaches. Herk's journey to Prescott with his prisoner is endangered when a garrulous telegrapher spreads the word of Deaver's capture - word that reaches the prisoner's Indian allies.

While Chesley Vantage eagerly greets the arrival in Silver City of his son, Brad, who's been studying in Kansas to be a veterinarian, word reaches Deputy McCord that a gunfighter is also on the way from Kansas, apparently to settle a score. McCord soon learns that Brad acquired his vet training while serving time in a Kansas prison. He also learns that the gunfighter, Jim Stanton, wants to kill Brad because he mistakenly believes Brad warned authorities about a planned prison escape. McCord spares Brad from Stanton's wrath by coming up with a ruse to put Brad in jail. Then McCord kills Stanton in a barroom shootout. Brad's now free to set up his practice and his father, himself a reformed outlaw, is none the wiser about his son's criminal past.

Marshals in three Arizona towns have been shot dead and Simon Fry fears the killer may now be coming to Silver City. He sends Herk Lamson off on vacation and watches as four suspicious strangers arrive in town: a cowboy named Barker, a gambler named Regan, a salesman named Madden, and a guitar-player named Wilk. Fry arrests Regan for cheating at cards while Clay McCord offers to escort Wilk back to his hotel. Wilk pulls a gun on McCord in an alley and explains he's been shooting marshals because his daughter was killed in the crossfire when marshals were making an arrest. Fry then comes into the alley followed by Fran McCord. Fran distracts Wilk who is then shot by Fry. As Wilk dies, he says he'll be happy to rejoin his daughter.

McCord infiltrates a group of outlaws to inform Fry of their plans. Fry: Henry Fonda. Johnny: Henry Brandon. Curly: Gerald Milton. Billy: Richard Bakalyan. Ike: Charles Fredericks.

Clay finds a note in a murdered man's pocket that threatens death to Herk Lamson. Marshal Fry is convinced that the crime is linked to a sensational trial held the previous year where a woman was convicted of murdering her husband and her brother's vowed vengeance.