In Sunshine Valley, California, “Laughing” Larry Lawton and his pal, “Sagebrush” Hilton, are informed that unless the ranch owners place $10,000 in a designated spot on a certain day the reservoir supplying the valley with water will be drained. Just to show they aren’t kidding, the extortionists have drained two feet of water already. In New Orleans, wealthy California ranch owner Austin Sinclair, now purchasing Ghost City Ranch in Sunshine Valley, receives word that a conspiracy is in progress to take the ranch away from him. He is unable to travel to California because of a disabled foot but his daughter Alice offers to go for him. She gets her cousin, Ray Moreton, an aviator, to take her in his aeroplane. Agents of Jasper Harwell, who is trying to get the ranch by unfair means, try to prevent the departure but the pair escape them and are soon on their way. The plane develops engine trouble a few miles short of their destination and they are forced to land. Alice borrows a horse from Lawton and is on her way to Ghost City Ranch but rides right in the path of a cattle stampede…end of Chapter One.