New ranger Cotton Buckmeister is assigned by Judge Larkin to return a strongbox of official documents to Uvalde. Chad and Joe are to accompany him. Judge Ike Macallum ruthlessly rules Uvalde and has illegally brought charges against many people in order to blackmail them. So both Macallum victims and his henchmen are after the strongbox. During the journey Chad and Joe discover that Cotton also has an interest in the strongbox as he is ""wanted"" for breech of promise when he refused to marry Judge Macallum's sister Ada. A shootout occurs before Parmalee can arrive with Judge Larkin. Joe ends the gunfight by blowing the strongbox up with dynamite. All of the documents are destroyed except one - Cotton's. Court is held and Cotton is found guilty and Chad and Joe are appointed as supervisors.

Pro-Juarez rebel Juan Morales is taken from Ranger protection by the LeBec gang across the border to a French prison to await execution as an enemy of Emperor Maxmillian. The four rangers are sent to retrieve him and gain access to the prison with the help of cantina owner and Juarez sympathizer Carmella Alveras, who is also an old girlfriend of Erik's. Erik devises a plan to rescue Morales ""after the execution"". Reese, Chad and Joe sneak into the firing squad barracks and load the rifles with blanks while Erik does the same for the captain's pistol which will be used for the coup de grace, the final shot to the head. The pistol is fired at Erik when he's leaving the fort so he, Chad and Joe intercept soldiers sent from Maxmillian and impersonate them with Reese reluctantly posing as Morales' wife. Erik poses as a major and uses his ""rank"" to fire the coup de grace himself.