Stranded in Red Butte

Dale Hypsmann, a blacksmith on his way to a job in Red Butte, Colorado, is mistaken for a payroll messenger and shot. While recovering from the wound that breaks two ribs, Dale engages in a shooting match for a prize rifle. He wins the match and the enmity of the local, overgrown pug-ugly known as H.K.

At a dance, H.K. starts an argument and hits Dale's chest wound. One of the weakened ribs ruptures and punctures Dale's lung, causing a siege of pneumonia.

Out of bed but a few days, Dale drives the doctor to an emergency call. The worried doctor doesn't warn Dale, and after an hour in the cold, he walks into the house full of diphtheria.

The epidemic runs its course and a dance is held to aid the victims of the disease. Before inviting his girlfriend, Alegra Hawthorn, to the shindig, Dale uses his blacksmith know-how to make a metal chest protector.

H.K. starts an argument by throwing Dale's coat on the dance hall floor and wiping his shoes on it. When Dale accepts the challenge, a blow to his scarcely healed chest knocks him to the floor, and the chest protector cripples H.K.'s hand.

On the morning Alegra and Dale start their honeymoon, H.K. meets them with a blacksnake whip. Because of H.K.'s crippled hand, Dale is able to get control of the whip and beats H.K. into a craven hulk.