When a rifle shot sounds ahead of the train Flint McCullough rides out to investigate. He expects to find trouble - and so he does, of a sort. He finds an old friend from his civil war days, Cliff Grundy. Now there isn't a lot that Cliff Grundy hasn't done in his lifetime and for everything he has done he has a story or several to tell about it. Over the campfire that night he weaves his tales of derring doos and don'ts and many of the travellers believe him. Especially about the goldmine he is on his way to lay claim to. The next day Major Adams sends out Flint and a party of men to hunt buffalo to bolster their meat rations. Cliff goes along and by his side rides a teenager who hangs on his every word. Flint splits the party up and the boy and Cliff go off together. When they spot the buffalo, Cliff lets the boy take first shot but the shot goes wide and the now frightened buffalo stampede towards them. Cliff saves the boy but is trampled himself. When the men get him back to camp he is unconcious and half dead. It is obvious he can't be moved but the train has to move on so the Major allows Flint and one other man to stay with him. Flint stays because he is Cliff's friend, but the other man has another, less savoury, motive. He is after the location to Cliff's goldmine and determined to get it even if he has to beat it out of the sick man, as Flint soon discovers. Flint bars the man from seeing Cliff but won't let him leave the camp. Against the odds Cliff begins to recover. Then the rougue turns the tables, knocks Flint out, wrecks the camp and heads out. With no food or water and hostile Indians too close for comfort, it looks as if the end of the trail is close for the two friends.