Bill stops at an inn, where he meets an old lawman friend, who is holding two convicted killers. The lawman knows that friends of his two prisoners are in the area and planning to free them. When the lawman is wounded, Bill must take the responsibility of keeping the prisoners in custody himself, helped only by the meek owner of the inn, his domineering wife, and a gambler unwilling to take unnecessary risks.
While Bill is participating in a draw and shoot contest in a town rodeo, the local bank is robbed, and a photographer friend of Bill's is shot and killed. The photographer's young son, however, sees the picture his father took of the robbers just before they shot him.
Riding with a posse, Bill captures the bank robber they were after, as well as the money he had stolen. But the others in the posse decide to split the loot among themselves. When Bill is the only one who refuses to go along with the idea, they decide they'll have to kill him as well as the robber. But a band of Comancheros interrupts their plans.
Bill is ambushed and his horse is stolen. Having to take a stagecoach, he finds that one of the other passengers is wanted outlaw Pony Sloan. But after stopping at a way station, he meets another man from whom he finds there is another side to Sloan's story.
After killing one of the outlaw Kiley brothers, the citizens of Calico have buried him as an exhibit in the middle of the main street. The veteran lawman who they've hired as their new sheriff objects to this provocative act, causing the citizens to ask for his resignation. Then Bill comes to warn the citizens after he learns that the Kiley gang is planning to ride in and wipe out the entire town in revenge.
Bill is hired as trail boss driving a cattle herd to Abilene. But he has to contend with two big problems. One is a hostile trail hand, whose anger over Bill getting the ramrod job over him is aggravated by his jealousy over the ranch owner's daughter. The other is a rival drive who's leader will stop at nothing to insure that his herd gets to Abilene first. First of a two part story, concluding with "Showdown At Abilene".
After failing in an attempt to ambush Bill, Bishop pays a band of Indians to attack the Akins herd, hoping to scatter the cattle and thus prevent them from reaching Abilene first. Conclusion of a two-part story, the first part being "Stampede".
Still leading the cattle drive, Bill is allowed to take his herd across a powerful rancher's land. On the way across, he finds a woman who claims she is fleeing from the rancher's advances. But he soon learns that she has not told the whole truth.
A former lawman, now a storekeeper, has lost his nerve after a shooting incident, and is now being harassed by a gang of outlaws led by the brother of a man he once killed. The ex-lawman's daughter refuses to let him put on a gun again or try to fight back.