 Two smooth thugs and their trigger-happy partner (the actor is given significantly lower billing than Tom Reese and Eddie Firestone, who play the sharpies) extract nitroglycerin from dynamite by boiling it until the nitro floats "like an oil" on the water s surface and skimming it off. It s fully as dangerous as it sounds, so they have hired men to do it for huge sums of money which they get from burglarizing banks and blowing up their safes. The first one goes up in an gigantic explosion which shatters windows miles away, so they turn to a young ex-cowboy with no prospects except his saloon-girl girlfriend. The young man reluctantly agrees, hoping to make a fresh start by investing in petroleum development (Buck Taylor s dad Dub plays the developer). But when a cougar spooks the thugs  horse and causes horse and buggy to be strewn all over the landscape, the thugs must regroup. They have accidentally knocked over the bank where the Kansas Petoleum Development Company s money was stored, so they have to try and play nice to the young man and get him to mix more nitro.