Summary
A parched wind scrapes across the Lynne spread, where Bess—sun-scorched, iron-willed—keeps the last threadbare remnants of her dynasty twitching round the bed-bound silhouette of Harold, her brother whose lungs rattle louder than the locusts. Into this bone-bleached fiefdom ambles Duke, a laconic maverick astride a bay that looks as if it has already galloped through a dozen aborted futures, answering a want-ad for a foreman that nobody in town bothered to read past the word help. Yet behind the saloon’s bat-wing doors lurks Bill Harliss, a cattle middleman whose grin drips venomous honey, partnered with Stinson, a dime-store dandy whose spurs jingle like coins in a church plate as he courts Bess with promises of Eastern ballrooms and safety from the dust. Harliss low-balls the Lynne herd, hoping to flip the beef for railway profits; Duke, sniffing graft in the air thicker than sage, strong-arms the pair into paying market price, turning triumph into vendetta. Stinson waylays the foreman on a moonless trail, strips him of wallet and water, and leaves him supine beneath a sky so star-pocked it feels like the inside of a salt cave—yet Duke, half-dead, lassos a feral mustang and claws back to the ranch through alkali flats that glitter like broken glass. Meanwhile Stinson boards Bess and Harold onto an iron horse eastbound, whispering that their savior has absconded to Mexico with their purse; Duke, thundering alongside the locomotive against a horizon hemorrhaging dawn, leaps the caboose, fists settle like iron meteorites on Stinson’s jaw, and in the steam-clouded clinch the lie unravels: the ranch stays, love stays, and the West exhales one last sigh before the barbed wire marches in.
Synopsis
Ranchers Bess Lynne and her invalid brother, Harold, seek the services of a competent foreman. Duke, of the "Bar Nothin'" ranch, rides into town and takes the job. Crooked cattle buyer Bill Harliss, aided by Bess's unscrupulous suitor, Stinson, tries to coerce the Lynnes to sell their herd at a low price. Duke learns of their scheme and forces him to buy the cattle at its full market value. As retribution, Stinson robs Duke and leaves him in the desert to die, but the foreman catches a stray horse and returns to the ranch. Stinson convinces Bess and Harold to return East with him, claiming that Duke has stolen their money and escaped into Mexico. As the train leaves the station, Duke gives chase and subdues Stinson, winning Bess for himself.
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