Arriving in Grande Mesa late at night, Johnny pays a visit to an old friend, Jim Murdock, who is managing a theatre. Two robbers break in to steal the payroll, shoot Jim, and knock Johnny unconscious. When Johnny recovers consciousness in the doctor's office, he finds that Jim is dead. The next morning, Johnny and Tom Murdock, Tom's son and town sheriff, ride out to pick up the trail of the killers.; Johnny interrupts a stage coach robbery, but the guard is shot. Spike Nash, the driver, and Johnny take the wounded man to a nearby Navajo village, where Spike is well-known. The bandits sneak up on the village and kill a Navajo. Johnny trails the bandits to a box canyon.