Fred Peters leaves his home and intercepts the express rider on the lonely mountain road, making away with a rich haul. The express rider hurries to the sheriff's office and notifies him; a posse is formed and they start in pursuit. Safely hidden among the rocks the "terror" fires, wounding one of the deputies in the arm. After this catastrophe the posse return, their ardor cooled to take the "bad man" of the mountains. Arrived at the sheriff's office, the express rider binds up the injured arm. The sheriff announced that he needs a man of nerve to lead the posse and the express rider agrees to find the man. Going to the general store, where the boys are loitering, he takes a corner of his handkerchief in his mouth and dares any man to fight him with a Bowie, holding the other corner of the handkerchief in his mouth. Nobody accepts the challenge. Bob Steele comes up and offers to fight him any style. Taking up the other corner of the handkerchief in his mouth, he attacks the express rider so fiercely that he is compelled to drop his end, leaving Bob the winner in the unique deal. They ask him to lead the posse, and he willingly agrees to go. Again the posse arrives at the scene of the hold-up and Fred Peters, resting his rifle on a rock, fires and kills a deputy. Steele turns to the posse and urges them to go after the desperado. The men hesitate and Bob, drawing his gun from his holster, throwing it to the ground, declares, 'I'll bring him in, single-handed, without a gun.' Leaving the posse, he enters the dense thicket leading up to the outlaw's retreat. Fred Peters, thinking he has again halted pursuit, catches his rifle in a crevice in the rocks, and, taking up the bag of gold, returns to his home. Bob Steele has picked up his trail and follows him relentlessly, now standing upright in the open and now crawling upon hands and knees through the dense underbrush and over the dangerous brow of the cliffs. He comes to the crevice in the rocks and finds fresh evidence of the outlaw's recent presence, and, with the instinct of an Indian scout, he follows the trail. When he arrives at the outlaw's home he meets Lottie Peters and explains his mission. While he is talking Fred comes out and covers him with his gun. Lottie throws herself in front of Steele and Fred Peters is halted in his murderous design. Bob Steele, always fearless, steps from behind her and, pointing to his heart, dares the outlaw to shoot him. All this is disconcerting to Fred, who does not wish to commit murder in the presence of his mother and sister. At the psychological moment Bob springs on the outlaw and, wrestling his gun from him, he turns the tables completely. Covering him with the gun he quietly remarks, "For the sakes of these women, I'll give you one hour to get across the line." After his departure Steele examines the gun and, throwing it down, he starts down the mountain trail. Lottie picks up her brother's gun and watches the ranchman out of sight. Instead of obeying Steele's mandate, the outlaw hurries to where his rifle is cached and lies in wait for the fearless man. Steele, unconscious of his danger, stops to drink at a mountain stream. He is followed by Lottie, who has a presentiment of danger, for she knows he brother's treacherous nature. She sees her brother on the cliff above and utters a cry of warning. Fred's rifle flashes and the ranchman's hat is shot from his head. Almost simultaneously the sharp crack of her gun is heard and, mortally wounded, Fred falls over the cliff to the table rock below. Without a word of remorse, or even a backward glance, Lottie wends her way with the man whose life she has saved, back to her home and waiting mother. --Moving Picture World, July 15, 1911, p. 62.
Jack Richardson was injured in the making of this film.
“Mr. Jack Richardson, character man of the American Film Company’s Western stock, is usually delegated to assume the dare-devil and reckless feats which other members of the company express an unwillingness to attempt on account of the risk to life and limb. In ‘The Ranchman's Nerve,’ Mr. Richardson is cast for the character of the desperado, feared and abhorred by the cowmen. In this character Richardson is supposed to be shot. The place of execution was a point of rock jutting out over a cliff having a drop of sixty feet. Upon being shot, Richardson missed his footing and actually fell the sixty feet, which was not intended, suffering a broken ankle and collar bone. But the camera man was on the job and caught Richardson in the film as he hurtled through space to what seemed sure death. Though Jack is still hors de combat, he seems perfectly satisfied since he knows that his sensational fall is in the picture. This fall is the climax to one of the best pictures the ‘Flying A’ has put out.” - Moving Picture World, 1911, page 129: "From El Cajon Valley."