In a rigged gunfight Tom Blake is forced to shoot a man in self defense and is then hunted for murder. After a long trip fleeing the posse he uses a false name and joins the Pony Express which is just about to commence operatons. Relegated to the most dangerous section of the route, he finds himself fighting the District Manager's scheme to sabotage the inital run. But just then a wanted poster with his picture on it arrives.
Tom Hardy (Tom Mix), a pony express rider, is carrying government gold in a coach to Wassatch accompanied by Alice Calhoun (Sharon Lynn) , the daughter of the US telegraph survey station. The gold is to pay for the US Telegraph Survey and it is to be delivered to the survey chief, Jim Calhoun (Thomas Lingham). The coach is attacked by bandits led by the Slade (Duke Lee) and Kane (Mark Hamilton).
The plucky boy rider Red discovers the dead body of Jim Crawford in the desert. A message scratched on a canteen begs the finder to protect Jim's daughter Ann from the killer, Luke Matthews.
Jim Dunn, county sheriff, is asked to withdraw his name as a candidate for re-election because the boys think he has proved himself incapable in office. Dunn is a tighter, rushes to town, declares he will be in the campaign in spite of all opposition, and has the town placarded with notices urging the boys to vote for him. .Meanwhile, the judges have a hard time to find a man with the nerve to run against Dunn. Broncho Billy, a ranchman, is urged to become a candidate and agrees. Cleaning his gun thoroughly, Broncho sits down to eat dinner. Word of Broncho's becoming his rival reaches Dunn's ears and he immediately rides to the ranch house.
Bud Harris, who is in love with Molly Vernon, leaves the Vernon ranch when there is an oil boom in the territory, then returns to find the property encumbered with debt. Bush, who holds the mortgage on the ranch, attempts to foreclose when he learns that there is oil on the land, and Bud enters a horserace to pay the debt.
Oniatare, a young brave of the tribe of the Hurons, and Kowa, a chief of the Mohicans, are in love with Ethona, or "The River Flower," an Indian Princess. The Hurons and the Mohicans are sworn enemies. The young brave and "The River Flower" meet from time to time. Kowa notices this and in plaintive song would lure the fair Ethona to him. But it is of no avail.
At the beginning of the Civil War, as federal troops start to build the first overland telegraph, Indians, who fear the wires, kill some of the linesmen. In response, Major Hammond, who oversees the troops, requests that President Abraham Lincoln send twenty thousand more soldiers to come to his aid. Lincoln grants Hammond's request, and sends along Capt. Allen, who is knowledgeable about Indians. At his new post, Allen discovers that a Confederate spy has been fomenting trouble with the Indians. Allen eventually uncovers the spy, makes peace with the Indians and wins the love of Dorothy, a young woman who lives at the post.
When his sister, who is married to saloon keeper Joe Slavin, dies, Jack Armstrong takes in her little daughter, Bebe. Sampson Burke, his rival for schoolteacher Agnes Rushton, conspires with Slavin to have Jack arrested for abduction.
This animated precursor to music videos was made on commission for the American company Rembrandt Films. It illustrates an American folk song of the Old West.
It was a time when men thought quick and shot quick, self-preservation being Nature's first law. The stage-coach, having the precious freight of two fair girls and much of Uncle Sam's mail, goes through on schedule time, despite the fact that a band of outlaws leagued to rapture the mail coach.
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