AllMovie

It seems like every word Zane Grey ever put to paper eventually wound up on screen during the silent days. Although there's a romance involved between Bebe Daniels and Lloyd Hughes in this Western, two of the era's finest character actors, Ernest Torrence and Noah Beery Sr. are really the whole show. The year is 1876 and Holderness (Beery), "tyrant of the desert" (according to the Moving Picture World review), is trying to force August Naab (Torrence) to sell his property -- there are water rights involved, of course. Naab's feisty daughter, Mescal (Daniels), has been pushed into a loveless marriage, and as she is trying to escape, she is captured by Holderness' men. Jack Hare (Hughes), a soldier of fortune from the East, was saved from dying in the desert by Naab, and he comes to Mescal's rescue. He and Naab round up a group of Indians and battle it out with Holderness' forces. Naab is victorious and Hare wins Mescal.