An escaped, wounded robber holds a young man and wife prisoner in their isolated swamp home, but when he succumbs to the injury, the couple are left with a moral conflict over returning the stolen loot.
Vail comes to a large landowner's home seeking to force him to pay back taxes or move out. Instead he finds the old man's been murdered,so he then tries to investigate the suspicious, but hostile family members.
Two escaped convicts search for a way to escape out of the Everglades, and find an open swamp boat with a floating schoolroom aboard. They take the class hostage and force the teacher to wave off Vail, making his rounds.