"Tonto" Daily fails as a cowpuncher for Weston, wealthy cattleman, and is demoted to chuck-wagon driver. He falls even lower, in Weston's estimation, when he loses the wagon in a river crossing and imperils the life of Nina, Weston's daughter. Porky and Tex, two worthless cowboys, who aspire to own a pig farm, learn that Daily has inherited a fortune and they beg him to invest in their pig-farm venture. Daily declines. In spite of his bumbling mistakes, Munther, the ranch foreman, and a rustler on the side, keeps Daily around. He assigns him to guard 5,000 longhorn cattle in the Weston stockyards. When he falls asleep, Munther and Joe Gilbert, a suitor for Nina's hand, steal six hundred head of cattle and hide them in a cavern below the Mexico border. Daily flees the situation and invests money in the pig farm, but his heart is still with the cows. Porky and Tex take him to a Mexican border cantina, and they spread the report that their friend is really the notorious outlaw, the Tonto Kid, from "under the Tonto Rim." Nina is also at the cantina, accompanied by Gilbert, and she is thrilled to learn that Daily is a bold, bad man. Gilbert exposes Daily for the meek man he really is and has a bouncer throw him into the street. Nina's sudden scorn changes Daily into a roaring, two-fisted he-man, cleans out the saloon, commandeers a couple of horses, takes Nina prisoner and escapes.