When young Jack Thompson was sent by his father to his old school friend and chum, Tom Harding, he left an environment of culture and refinement to enter upon the hard life of a cowboy. Endowed by nature with the very spirit of the West, manliness and honor, he entered with satisfaction into the new order of things. The cowboys were inclined to resent the intrusion of the tenderfoot, and one, Bill Crowley, became his bitter enemy, when he saw that the tenderfoot had made a marked impression on Tom Harding’s lovely daughter. He tried in every possible way to discredit Jack, and one day when Jack and Miss Harding were riding, he insolently stopped her horse, and upon Jack’s resenting the intrusion, Crowley held him up at the point of his gun. In the face of certain destruction, Jack Thompson considered discretion the better part of valor, but he determined then and there to even up the score. One morning while out on the ranch, Mr. Harding, accompanied by his pretty daughter, rode out to inspect his cattle, and Crowley, to belittle Jack, deliberately insulted him. Jack’s patience was at an end, and although Crowley drew his gun, Thompson gave his tormentor a severe trouncing. Mr. Harding, who had been annoyed on several occasions by Bill’s inattention to his work, immediately discharged him, and congratulated Jack on his manly handling of the situation. Crowley, humiliated and angry, determined to be revenged on the whole outfit, and turned cattle rustler. The work at the ranch continued the same, rounding up strays, dipping the cattle to prevent disease, etc., when the owner noticed that some cattle he had determined to ship were missing from the herd. Accordingly, he called the boys together and told them they must put an end to the thieving tactics of the cattle rustlers. Jack Thompson immediately starts out, and is riding along alert and watchful when he observes two of the rustlers in the act of re-branding a steer. He hastily dismounts and makes his way stealthily behind a tree, and to divert their attention throws a stone. Crowley, startled, immediately draws his gun and goes in the direction of the suspicious sound, when Thompson darts from his hiding place and with one well-directed blow fells the other rustler to the ground. Ejecting the shells from the rustler’s gun, he hides behind the steer to await the return of Crowley, and the instant that he reappears covers him with his gun. Returning to the ranch with his prisoners, he is heartily welcomed by all, and Mr. Harding announces that Jack will be the foreman of the ranch. Miss Harding’s reward to him is a contract for life.