In 1860s Texas, ranch hand Mike Reno has a fist fight with his ranch owner uncle over some unpaid wages. Mike is finally paid his back wages and heads for the nearest town where he gambles his wages away in a saloon. Unhappy about the loss, Mike starts a disturbance in the saloon and he is promptly arrested by local Marshal Gideon McCool. In jail, Mike is awaiting the next transport to the larger Huntsville territorial prison. Also awaiting transfer to the prison is fellow jailbird Aaron Pleasant who was arrested for mistakenly shooting a child in the dark street and subsequently sentenced to death by hanging. Marshal Willett tasks Marshal Gideon McCool to transport these prisoners to Huntsville using an improvised purpose-built prison wagon. The road to Huntsville passes through the Texas badlands and the Marshal feels he needs at least one more deputy in order to fulfill his task. Realizing that Mike Reno is not a real criminal he suggests that he pay a 50 dollar fine instead of serving 10 days in jail for the disturbance he created in the saloon. The Marshal offers to pay Mike Reno 100 dollars if Mike would agree to work for the Marshal as temporary deputy and help with the prisoner transport to Huntsville. Mike agrees and the two lawmen load the prison wagon with supplies and head to the junction where they suppose to collect two more prisoners from another Marshal's jail. The two extra prisoners are R. C. Crawford, an embezzling railroad commissioner and Angel Dominguez, a Mexican goat thief. After leaving the junction, the prison wagon makes one more stop at the next town's jail to collect the last prisoner, Laura Mannon, a saloon entertainer who killed her cheating businessman lover. With the prison wagon now full, Marshal Gideon McCool and his temporary deputy Mike Reno must travel for three days and safely deliver all prisoners to the Huntsville state prison.