The citizens and near-by ranchers of a western town are being besieged by a gang of rustlers and robbers, and a plea is made to the governor to send a troop of rangers. Shortly, thereafter a dude-costumed cowboy shows up but he only asks a lot of dumb questions and does a lot of stick-whittling as he wanders the streets and hangs out in the saloon with the regular barflies. The citizens mark him down as being 'tetched in the head.' Also, shortly after the whittler arrives, a mysterious black-masked rider begins to make life a bit tougher on them than it had been.