Red Ryder and Little Beaver find an old prospector delirious with the heat. When they take the prospector to their home, two gunmen arrive and the prospector disappears, along with Little Beaver. Red Ryder goes to Rimrock and the whole town goes out searching for the pair. While they're gone a gang of bandits plunder the empty town.; Little Beaver finds an injured man in the woods and takes him to the man's cabin. There he finds the man was shot in a robbery and his accomplices keep Little Beaver prisoner in the cabin. Little Beaver is able to send smoke signals by way of the cabin chimney to alert searchers of his plight.; Peddlers offer the Navaho "white man's hats" in exchange for food and water. The peddlers' ultimate goal is to distract the tribe so they can steal their supply of turquoise.