Major Bartholomew "Butch" Cavendish, a former army officer court-martialed by General Ulysses S. Grant, runs a ruthless outlaw organization. In a plot to kidnap Grant, now President of the United States, and declare Texas a sovreign nation, the Cavendish Gang ambushes a group of Texas Rangers. In the ambush Captain Dan Reid and his brother John are presumably killed. John survives and is nursed back to health by Tonto, a native american whose life John had saved when they were children.