Plot

Bolton has organized a feud between the Rork's and the O'Neil's. He has rustled cattle and killed a man putting the blame on Danny O'Neil. Tom Rork has found a bullet with markings on it that he hopes will clear Danny.

Bolton has organized a feud between the Rorks and the O'Neils. He has rustled cattle and killed a man, putting the blame on Danny O'Neil. Tom Rork has found a bullet with markings on it that he hopes will clear Danny and bring in the real killer.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>

There might just possibly be a 1936 western called "Ridin' On" starring Tom Tyler and produced by Reliable Pictures that has a couple of families named "Rork" and "O'Neil"... but this one isn't it. It's only mentioned because some bad speller with a tin ear keeps changing the correct names of "Roarke" and O'Neill" in this one back to the incorrect "Rork" and "O'Neil", although they missed the Joan Barclay character name on the last attempt. In this one, a stranger on a horse he calls "Bad Medicine" comes riding into the Wolf Bend country and, as he enters the valley, is shot at from ambush. Since he wasn't hit and the ambusher is long gone, the rider rides on and encounters old "Doc" Onderdonk driving a buckboard. They chat a bit and "Doc" mentions that not only is he a physician, but also deputy sheriff, justice of the peace, coroner and undertaker for Wolf Bend. He also mentions that there is a range war going on between the owners of the ROARKE ranch and the O'NEILL spread. The rider rides on and comes to a cabin, receives no answer to his knock, steps in, and finds a dead man with a bullet in his head hunched over a table. But no time to ponder the situation as he hears the clatter of horse hooves and sees one rider being roped from the saddle by another rider. The roped rider is a girl and the stranger goes to her rescue and whips up on her pursuer, who is "Black Mike" Gonzado. Gonzando gets away and the girl tells the stranger that she is Gloria O'Neill, daughter of rancher Buck O'Neill, who is at war with neighboring rancher Jess Roarke and his outfit, but nobody's quite sure why. The stranger introduces himself as Tom Roarke, son of Jess Roarke, and says he has been on a ranch in Texas, while his father's ranch was being managed by foreman Lou Bolton. Tom somewhere gathers the impression that Gloria's brother, Danny O'Neill killed the man in the cabin but decides to help the O'Neill family anyway. He rides to his father's ranch, where Bolton accuses him of aiding the O'Neill's, and Jess Roarke orders son Tom Roarke off the property. Tom eventually learns that Gonzado works for Bolton and was the man who ambushed him and killed the man in the cabin, and that Bolton is after the water rights and created the ROARKE-O'NEILL feud to gain that end.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>