Rigby, Larribee, and Grant each have one third of Bill Joyce's map locating his gold mine. The three plus Joyce's sister Helen head for the mine. An accident with a runaway horse carrying supplies leaves them stranded in the desert with very little water.

The Stooges are private detectives in the Old West trying to help a girl recover an IOU from a bad guy. Their attempts to steal the IOU from the villain's wallet and then from a safe meet with problems until Curly, who goes berserk whenever he sees a mouse, knocks out all the bad guys.

Based on the Hammett novel, this ultra-rare film—is nominally taken from the author's classic gang-war novel Red Harvest, which proved too brutal and cynical even for pre-Code Hollywood.