 From the annals of the throbbing history of the West, the daring courage, conquests and achievement of frontier fighters. Hand in hand with the brilliant record of covered wagon and stagecoach and spanning the continent goes the glorious epic of the Wells Fargo Express. The Indian by 1854 was no longer the greatest menace to the stagecoach driver. Instead, hundreds of miles of desert and mountain were infested by highwaymen. 25 miles from San Francisco, an old concord coach with eight passengers, the driver, guard and a treasure chest, was thundering down a narrow mountain road. Driver and guard were complementing themselves on two things. Get along, get along, get on. Sure spinning along this trip ain't we Sam? Yeah, Bill. Looks like I ain't gonna have no use for these shotguns of been holding the groceries ever since we left the mine. Yeah, ain't that force less at its best for you. Just look at the six of them go spanking along there. Hey Bill, look, coming right at us. Hey! Hold up! Hold up for a fire! Hold up! We got you covered! They'll help me! Put down your guns, Sam. Move over it! Go on to treasure chest! Go on out! Are we going to be held up? You are held up. Come on, all you pile out of the coach. Yeah, here's your treasure chest. A good hold this time. There's $25,000 in it. Three out of your search for passengers. You two tear up the cushions. Make sure no dust or nuggets are hidden. Your voice is mighty familiar, Mr. If your face matches that voice of yours, I'd say you will... Shut your mouth or I'll give you both these barrels. All right, man, give me the valuables. I'll get back on the coach. All that you remember, we got a bead on you. It might be wise for you there, Mr. Driver, not to find a name to match my voice. All right, let's go. Oh, I have 2,000, my folks. It's getting so that as fast as the miners get the gold dust into the treasure chests, the highwaymen are just around the corner to take it away. Well, when we pull into San Francisco, there's going to be the very net to pay this time. Express companies are going to have to pay up or get out of business. A wall? Mr. Fargoon, his office now? Well, yes, Mr. Royals, he an office. Everybody an office. Everybody walls? Everybody from mines and business houses. All I say, everybody's every one. Well, I said they're talking big business. Oh, not only big business, but big talk. Good day, Mr. Fargoon. I'll talk this over with my partner gentlemen. Good day and thank you. Now you see for yourself what is a big talk or a big business, huh? Henry, a most astounding offer was just made us in your absence. It's a good chance for us to get at least 60% of all the express business in the west. 90% these men say. Well, let's discuss this in my office. I'd like to have wild talk floating around in the general offices. Henry, one of our competitors' stages was held up yesterday morning. And from the treasure chest alone, the highwaymen got $25,000. Yeah, it's a nice little hall. Something's got to be done about both the highwaymen and the responsibility of the express company. What does this group expect? Wells Fargoon Company to make good the laws of every treasure chest? If we'll make good this powerful group of mine owners and businessmen will give us enough business to cover the entire west with Wells Fargo offices. Well, I appreciate the public's confidence in Wells Fargo. After all, we're a little more than four years in the west. It's the opportunity of a lifetime for any company. If we can see our way clear to do it. If we guarantee to make good lost by theft, that means that from the time our agent gives the consigner a receipt, that receipt is as good as our word. And our word will have to be our bond. Exactly. Well, the whole scheme is breathtaking and it's possibilities, but dangerous possibilities. It could be done if we had three things, improved and faster coaches, a treasure chest that only gunpowder could open, and guards who believed with us that the highwaymen must go. Now, men, Mr. Fargo and myself have agreed that you drivers and guards of Wells Fargo passenger and express coaches represent a new type of American manhurt. In your hands will be half of the treasure of the nation, as well as the lives of men and women passengers. Mr. Fargo will give you your instruction. Each coach will have two guards. Each guard will have one shotgun across his knees, another that can be snapped to his shoulder on a split second's notice. He will also have a brace of pistols. The treasure chest will be a one-half inch cast iron, heavily padlocked and placed in a larger wood, brass-bound, heavily padlocked outer box. Your orders will be, first, think of the safety and well-being of your passengers. That means throwing out your treasure chest on demand if it looks like a shooting affair. If it doesn't, it's your lives against the highwaymen. The future of Wells Fargo, and the growth of the West is in your hands. Get going, and God bless you. I'm glad we're just 14 miles from Placerville. Sure will be a comfort in sight to see the lights of that town twinkle enough to us friendly like. I should make it there by 10 o'clock. I got a funny feeling middle of my stomach. Ain't gettin' squeamy speed, are ya? Not after four years of holding a shotgun in your hands? Well, it ain't squeamish, because I ain't up here. I hear something called by a high-flute word for reminiscence or some such thing. If we ain't been held up 50 miles out of Placerville, we ain't gonna be, then. Triggers in this part of the country ain't heard yet about our cast iron treasure chest. Don't think it's easy pickin' us. Well, I'm ready for them if they come. Lem here tells me we'll be comin' up to the top of a grave. Once down, we'll give the horses their head and be into Placerville before you know it. Is that? Sure. Make anything out, Pete? Can't see a thing, but I'm here in a tube. Well, one more mile and we'll be at the top of the grave. And then, if it's banded, we can give them a run for it into Placerville. Come on, Bet. Come on, girl. Get on. Get on. Make anything out yet? Lem here, it's a party of men. Pack news with them. They're old cloaks. Hi, Wayman. Get ready to throw out your treasure chest now. And not before I try and get to the top of this grave. And they're the king and on it. I'd just like to let them have what both fells. We got eight ladies and four men in that coat, huh? Don't think I can make the top of the grave in time. Maybe I better slow down before the open fire. And we gotta think of our passengers. Ah! Ah! Well, what's wanted? Throw out your treasure chest! You there in the coat ain't got nothing to worry about as long as we get the dust in that box. And you don't pull a gun on the eye. You can keep your personal valuables, too. All right. Here's the chest. It's supposed to be $50,000 in that. In some short, we'll know where it is and who's gonna pay with their lives. I met up with you once before, Mr. I reckon you're a rattlesnake dick. Oh! You dirty low-town murderer and mongrel you... Shut up, or you'll get the same. Eh, if you've got enough padlocks on this. Eh, eh, she comes now. Open now. That's a good moon light enough to see from it. Well, I'd be... There's an iron chest inside this one. Creepers never get this open without blasting it. Whales Fargo Express, huh? Well, I have to remember to carry gunpowder with us next time. All right, Tully, you get that chest on my horse. Remember, anybody fires one shot and we'll come back and wipe you out. All Ian, let's go! Now we know who did the holding up. And as soon as we get into Placerville, we'll get a Whales Fargo posse out after that gang. Yeah, I mean, better all get back into the coach. We're gonna string it into Placerville. Come on. Get on, get on you, get on. And I'm quickin' my job as driver for Whales Fargo and joinin' with the sheriff and the posse. Till we find rattlesnake dick and I'm avenged on him, personal. I figured, Sheriff, that it would take rattlesnake and his gang some time to get gunpowder. Blast the chest open. They'd be leavin' some sort of a trail. Thank you, right. And iron chest is the thing that's gonna hang more highwaymen than anything else. And most of the time, we're gonna recover the treasure, too. This is where we was held up here. Gettin' lighter all the time. We reckon we can pick up some sort of a trail. We reckon we will. Here's the marks of the coach and your horses. Here's their horses. Whoa! Some of rattlesnake's men went this way and some the other way. It's funny he should be dividing his party. Sheriff, that was just to throw us off the track. They went off into the brush but came back into the road again down here. They all went off each. Must've been to their hideouts. All right, Dan, you take the lead. Everybody pull it in. Rain up, men. I hear voices. Sounds like a whole parcel of men. It's rattlesnake. They've blown up the iron treasure chest. Gettin' your horses is gonna be an explosion. Dismount, men. All on hands and knees through this seed brush. When you're close enough, shoot, shoot, a kill. This sure enough is a hole! I'll call out to rattlesnake and then you men start shootin' because they'll all do the same. Now, rattlesnake dick! Surrender in the name of the law! Surrender in the name of the law! No! Well, Ben's done that, critter. The country's rid of rattlesnake dick. And Wells Fargo got their treasure back within 24 hours. Well, I reckon there'd be more respect now for Wells Fargo's stagecoachers and for the law. The West, I hope, will be a might safer for everybody that wants to come out to the last open frontier. And so was established the reputation of Wells Fargo, a reputation that was to go down in history as having helped tremendously in making the West safe for the pioneers for civilization. Each stage driver, every agent who guarded passengers and treasure chests, were sworn servants of law and order. Each one a true frontier fighter of the Old West.