 Pyromaniac Judd Patterson sets a warehouse ablaze and gets away in a stolen car. He abandons the car and hitches a ride with farmer Claude Norpel, who offers him temporary employment as a hired hand. An arson investigator gives Patterson s name as a possible suspect, and Dan Mathews and Sergeant Williams trace him to Norpel s farm. However, they arrive after he has already assaulted Norpel, knocked him unconscious, and is about to set the barn ablaze with Norpel still in it. Sergeant Williams distracts Patterson while Dan Mathews overpowers him, but the barn is set afire in the scuffle. The two Highway Patrol officers have only seconds to rescue Norpel and extinguish the blaze.