In "Arizona's yesterday," Square Deal Sanderson finds a letter on a dead horse thief from his sister Mary Bransford, whose New Mexico ranch is being threatened by Alva Dale, who owns the nearby town. Pretending to be Mary's brother, Sanderson prevents the hanging of Barney Owen, a drifter who has helped Mary. Dale has the crooked sheriff arrest Sanderson, but he escapes with Owen's help. After three thousand of Mary's cattle and three cowboys die when Dale poisons a watering hole, Sanderson makes the banker, in league with Dale, pay $90,000. Sanderson shoots two of Dale's men in a barroom fight, but then is captured at Mary's ranch. Bound up while Dale attempts to rape Mary in an adjoining room, Sanderson inches his chair to a stove, burns his ropes, and then lassoes Dale through the transom and hangs him until he nearly dies. Owen reveals himself as Mary's brother, while Sanderson, taking Dale to Arizona on a warrant, promises to return to Mary.