Mary Jane Patterson finds an old poster in the attic offering a reward for the capture of bandit "El Gato", whom she recognizes as Manuel Hernandez, her adopted father. He jokingly tells her that the members of his band, which robbed from the rich to give to the poor, ar now all respected citizens in their town of Mineville, Arizona. Donald Clark (William Henry), a stranger, recognizes the crooked town-Sheriff Richard Baldwin (Henry Wilcoxin) as the man he is hunting as the murdered of his father, but is outdrawn and shot by the sheriff. The wounded Clark escapes and makes his way to Manuel's house, where a group is entertaining schoolteacher Caroline Reid (Pauline Moore.) The sheriff and his men capture Clark, but Mary Jane mounts a horse and gallops away, and throws a rock through the windows of each member of El Gato's band with a message reading: "Be prepared---We Ride Again. El Gato." And also a note into the sheriff's office warning him that El Gato will ride again unless Clark is released inside of 24 hours. Manuel knows nothing of this the next day when he walks down the street and is puzzled by the mysterious winks of his friends and their whispered assurances that they are ready. But he leads his men against the sheriff, and soon finds himself under arrest and on trial charged with kidnapping the prisoner, stealing a gold shipment and killing the Wells Fargo agent.