Cattle are being routinely stolen from a local ranch, and suspicion centers on a local mountain family.

The Mesquiteers are supposedly losing cattle to a bear from the adjoining National park. But the culprits are the Dawson clan who kill the cattle and use Davey's pet bear to leave tracks. When Davey breaks his leg, they find a crutch mark along with the bear tracks and head after the Dawsons.—Maurice VanAuken <[email protected]>

The Three Mesquiteers, Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston), Tucson Smith (Ray Corrigan) and Lullaby Joslin (Max Terhune),are annoyed by recent shortages in their herds, blame Big Ed Dawson (J. P. McGowan) and his mountain clan for the thefts. Dawson convinces them that bears from the nearby national park game preserves are responsible for the killings. The Mersquiteers visit the Dawson clan in order to offer a bounty of $50 for each bear killed on their grazing land. There, they are outraged because Lorna Dawson (Lynne Roberts), Big Ed;s step-daughter, is being forced, against her wishes, to marry her cousin Charley Coe (Yakima Canutt), and her younger brother Davy (Sammy McKim) is being abused by Big Ed's clan for setting loose animals they have illegally trapped. The Mesquiteers break up the nuptials by remind Big Ed that the marriage of a girl as young as Lorna is against the law. Davy is being forced by the Dawson elders, under the threat of mistreating his mother, to aid in their cattle rustling activities; he has to take Nero, is pet bear, to the scene, so there will appear to be tracks to make it appear that a bear has made of with the stock. The park rangers have threatened the Mesquiteers with being jailed if they are caught in the preserve with firearms. Later, they are forced to shoot a mountain lion which is menacing Davy. This increases the ill will between the rangers and the Mesquiteers. Stony discovers the Dawson clan's trickery when he notices the prints of Davy's crutches around the bear tracks of a recently killed calf. The Mesquiteers set a trap for the Dawsons, but Stoney is arrested by the rangers when Coe kills Captain Brent (Hal Taliaferro) and blames it on Stony.—Les Adams <[email protected]>