Infamous gambler Monte Kerlin is about to be lynched by a mob of irate ranchers when Texas Ranger Steve McKay and his sidekick Arkansas intervene. After Steve convinces the ranchers that Monte's fate should be left to the court and not the rope, the mob relinquishes the gambler into Steve's custody. Steve rides back to headquarters with his prisoner, and there learns that due to a lack of funds, the state legislature has disbanded the Rangers. Steve, no longer an officer of the law, is forced to free Monte, who prepares to leave with his younger brother Dave, a former Ranger. When Sam Schuyler, the editor of the Canyon City Chronicle , and his cronies gallop into headquarters and demand that Monte surrender to them, a fight ensues, and the Kerlin brothers escape. After things calm down, Steve and Arkansas ride off to ask Major Montgomery, the former head of the Rangers, for a job. At the Montgomery ranch, they are welcomed by the major and his daughter Bonnie, who hire them to ward off a gang of Schuyler's cutthroats, who while posing as homesteaders, have been waging a campaign of terror against the ranchers in an attempt to force them off their lands. Meanwhile, in Canyon City, Monte coerces Schuyler into making him a partner in his scheme to displace the ranchers. Although Steve tries to discredit Schuyler's men by exposing them as escaped convicts, he soon realizes that the fight is useless without the power of the law behind him. When Dave discovers the truth about his brother, Schuyler frames the ex-Ranger for murder and has him jailed. Steve and Arkansas come to Dave's rescue, and after breaking him out of jail, Steve rides to the state capitol and persuades the governor and a senate committee to reinstate the Rangers. Leading his troop of Rangers, Steve then rides back to Canyon City to confront Schuyler and his gang. In the ensuing shootout, Monte is mortally wounded while shielding his brother, and before dying, confesses that Schuyler framed Dave on the murder charge. After the Rangers capture Schuyler and his gang, law and order is restored to Canyon City, and Dave and Bonnie ride off together.