The Virginian and Steve deliver a herd of cattle and find that the local bank has gone bust due to a money panic. The Judge's lawyer, Walter Moody, pulled the payment of $40,000 out of the bank before it closed. However, a bank depositor, Karl Swenson, knows about the money and believes over $10,000 of it should be his. Moody suggests Steve and The Virginian take the money to a another town for a bank draft by horseback. They find the bank there closed and the Swenson family catches up with them. The Virginian hops a freight train and joins up with a young runaway girl, Amelia Pryor, who tells tall tales while Steve leaves on horseback as a decoy. When The Virginian is prevented from re-boarding the train, Amelia leaves the train and returns with The Virginian's saddle bags. They are forced to spend the night at an elderly couple's barn and after leaving the next day, the Swenson's catchup again but they find the saddle bags contain cutup newspapers. The Virginian and Amelia return to the couple's farm where he searches for the money but it is not found. The Swensons arrive again but Steve catches up and they take the Swensons to jail and return to Medicine Bow. Upon their return they run into Moody who The Virginian suspects might have taken the money.
—Anonymous