Striking from the sky in a World War I airplane, cattle rustlers are killing cowboys, depleting local herds and leaving baffled ranchers searching vainly for horse or automobile tracks.

Dave Barrett pursues a gang led by a demented, bomb-throwing, defrocked minister when he is hired by a union official to find the real criminals responsible for the murder and robbery for which his men are being falsely accused.

A muckraking reporter is captured and tortured into revealing where he has hidden evidence proving state graft payoffs.