Andy Walker, bullied and taunted with being a coward, leaves town on a freight. The brakeman shoots two ruffians, but Andy is hailed as the hero and made a deputy sheriff.
Three Who Paid is a 1923 American silent Western melodrama film directed by Colin Campbell, and starring Dustin Farnum, with Bessie Love and Frank Campeau. The film was based on the 1922 short story by George Owen Baxter,
When Bob Stratton returns from war in France, he soon discovers his ranch in the hands of a pretty girl, Mary Thorne, who explains that upon her father's death she became the sole owner. Thorne had been the executor of Stratton's will, and thinking that Bob had been killed, he had appropriated the place for himself.
Rancher Bill Holt has a small homestead and insists on holding onto his land, much to the chagrin of crotchety old Judd Acker, a neighboring rancher who would like to see him vacate.
Jack Meadows and sidekick Toby are looking for whiskey smugglers along the Canadian border. They find a badly wounded Seriff who earlier caught one of them and a nearby hoofprint of a horse with a broken shoe. Setting up a blacksmith shop, they soon find the owner of that horse and replace the shoe with another that will let them trace him.
Paul is practicing the art of being a cowboy. He consults a book before firing his gun, climbing onto a saddle on top of a chair and then falling off and dressing his wounds. He then gets back on his 'saddle' and fires his gun again, this time in the direction of another man who has just entered the room. Paul leaves abruptly and rides into town on a horse, and straight through a crowded saloon. A town marshal sees this as act act of bravery and rewards Paul with a sheriff's badge immediately. A fearful rival makes his mark when he lights his cigarette by tossing it into the air and shooting at it to ignite it!
Trained by his Quaker mother to be gentle, Cyril Henderson receives only laughter from the townspeople when he tries to act tough to impress Grace Nolan, who is allowing Art Jordan, the town bully, to occupy her time so as to pique Cyril. The murder of Andrew McBride, who holds the mortgage on the Henderson's property, is blamed on the elder Henderson, and Cyril unsuccessfully tries to take the blame.
Drifter Dick Manners arrives at a ranch owned by Colonel Angus McClelland. When he wagers that he will be able to ride a wild bronco and kiss the ranchman's haughty daughter, Jean -- and wins -- he lands a job there. But Manners and Jean really fall in love and Colonel McClelland fires him. He then meets a woman who is dying, and she begs him to marry her so that her child will have a name. Manners obliges, and then Jean finds out about the situation.
J. Wesley Pringle and S. S. Thorpe are running against each other for sheriff. Unscrupulous Thorpe has his gang kidnap Pringle to prevent his win but Georgie Hibler, the daughter of Pringle's biggest supporter and her good friend, Fite, whom Pringle had saved from suicide, team up to saves him from the gang. Pringle wins the election and the girl!
Two cowboys drift into town. Both are broke, and one of them jokingly suggests they rob the local express office. A citizen overhears them, and when the office is robbed soon afterwards, the cowboys are blamed for it.
Falsely accused of murder by a gang that wants to obtain possession of his ranch (on which gold has been discovered) northwestern rancher Jack Hampton flees across the border into Canada pursued by the Northwest Mounted Police and an American sheriff. Chick Rawlins, the gang's leader, runs a place at a trading post, and the Canadian authorities have sent Jane Wilson into the camp to get evidence against him. Captured by the crooks, she has been imprisoned in the mountains. Her escape develops into a long chase by the crooks, Hampton, and his pursuers.
When the ability of Dick Leighton (William Farnum), Sheriff of Randolph, Oregon, to enforce law and order is tested by the leader of the political opposition, he stands his ground and overpowers the unruly element.
Wyoming cattleman Laramie Lad takes a vacation by visiting an old friend who runs a summer resort, but before he can relax, he meets Jane Sheridan and her father, Al Sheridan, who are fighting off a group of swindlers who want the old man's mining property.
Rod Norton is a lawman searching for his father's killer. Norton suspects saloon owner Jim Garson but is lacking evidence. Garson's henchmen, the Rickard brothers, kidnap Norton's sweetheart Dorothy, hoping to lure the sheriff into a trap.