The cattle on the Langton Ranch are mysteriously dying and cowhands are disappearing or being shot. Two Langton riders bring a wounded rider they found wounded and hung up in a barbed-wire fence to Sally Langton and report that her father is missing. A lone rider, Jess Ryder, tops a rise and sees a band of men working on some calves in a secluded corral, and he frowns as he sees what Bat Murchinson is doing. Spying Jess, Bat orders his men away and he tries to ambush Jess but is taken captive himself. He takes him to Lynchburg, where Mort Snyder, of the Snyder Land & Cattle Company, is pacing up and down in his office, pondering a cryptic message he has received: "Man from New Mexico heading your way. Dangerous. Watch out." A henchman arrives and tells him that a stranger is bringing Bat to town as a prisoner, and Mort has his men take the sign from over the sheriff's office and put it over his own sign, as the sheriff is out searching for Mr. Langton.