Tom Duncan, the son of rancher John Duncan, performs in rodeos across the West, and earns extra money by having his friend, a cowboy named Windy, take bets on his skilled handling of bucking broncos. Tom, who is estranged from his father, is saving his money so that he can marry his sweetheart, Nancy Smiley, and buy a home. While carousing at a saloon one evening, Tom receives a letter from his father asking him to let bygones be bygones and urging him to come home. On the way, Tom and Windy are waylaid by three strangers hired to detain them, but Tom manages to knock them all out in a fistfight. Meanwhile, back at the Duncan ranch, Duncan, Sr. signs the final draft of his will, which leaves everything to Tom, under the watchful eye of lawyer Bert Hartecker. Along with the final copy of the will, Hartecker delivers $5,000 in cash, which Duncan adds to his already sizeable cache, hidden in the basement because he mistrusts banks. After Hartecker leaves, Tap Smiley, Nancy’s father, trys to talk Duncan into consolidating the Duncan and Smiley ranches, but Duncan refuses to sign anything until Tom’s return. Later the same evening, Duncan’s Chinese servant, Sing Fat, enters the study and encourages him to taste a special pudding he has prepared. An annoyed Duncan throws Sing Fat out and gives the pudding to his dog Rusty, who keels over and dies after eating it. Duncan is then stricken with a heart attack, and although in pain, he manages to scribble a few lines on a sheet of paper. When a mysterious masked intruder enters, Duncan gives a sign of recognition before being shot dead. Tom arrives home too late to save his father, and at the reading of the will, he learns that Duncan has left him everything, including $50,000 in cash hidden somewhere in the house. The only clue to the money’s whereabouts is the unfinished note which Duncan wrote before dying: “You will find it if you follow…” Tap declares that he has been cheated because, he says, he and Duncan were practically partners, and when Hartecker disputes his claim, he leaves in a huff, taking Nancy with him. Later that evening, Sing Fat steals Duncan’s note and hides it in the kitchen, where he is confronted by a masked intruder and chloroformed. When Windy awakens to investigate, he too is chloroformed and dragged away. The masked man then shoots Scarface, a ranch hand, but when Tom pursues on horseback, he is ambushed by the same trio of men who had attempted to detain him on his way home. While Tom is held captive in the gang’s hideout, Nancy and her father have an argument because Tap doesn’t think that Tom is good enough for her. Defying her father, Nancy goes to the Duncan ranch to look for Tom and falls through a trap door into a subterranean room located beneath the kitchen. Tom eventually escapes from the gang when his horse manages to chew through his bindings, and on the way back to the ranch, he alerts the sheriff. Once home, Tom notices a series of “X”s scratched into various surfaces by the striking of a match, and by following the path of the mysterious symbols, he is led to a maze of underground chambers, where he finds Nancy and the $50,000 in cash, as well as Sing Fat and Windy. The masked man suddenly appears, and while Tom’s back is turned, he punches him and takes the bag of money. Tom and the sheriff’s posse pursue the thief, and when Tom apprehends him, a fistfight ensues during which the mysterious stranger’s mask falls off, revealing Hartecker. As Hartecker is taken away by the sheriff’s men, Tom declares that he now has everything he wants: the money, the ranch and the girl. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
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