A very young girl goes to deliver lunch to the cowboys who have stayed behind on the plains. She climbs into a wagon. Along the way, the wagon is spotted by a man on horseback. The girl arrives and kisses her father, to whom she gives the lunch. Eventually, the child is kidnapped, and a ransom of 25,000 pounds is demanded. A ten-year-old boy offers to go and try to save the girl.
As a result of a stagecoach hold-up and other crimes, Buck Brady has become known locally as the "King of Bandits". The sheriff posts a $1000 reward for Brady, dead or alive. Soon a full-scale effort is underway to capture the bandit king.
As a young couple are courting, they are rudely interrupted and split up. The man is seized and is turned over to a gang of toughs who want to hang him. Though she is greatly outnumbered, the young woman wastes no time in making a determined effort to rescue him.
At dawn, two cowboys set out to scout ahead; as soon as they are on the trail of a herd of wild horses, they attempt to surround them and drive them back. A rapid stamping alerts their companions, who prepare the lassos; the ropes whistle, wind around the necks of the panicked beasts, which take a few more steps then, strangled and panting, are brought back captive. In the evening, they camp. Large fires are lit around which men and beasts settle down to sleep, not without a good guard being kept in the surrounding area. Meanwhile, the Apaches creep under cover of night to the American camp and succeed in seizing the captured beasts. Following this abduction, a frantic pursuit begins across the vast solitude of the Far West.
A train traveling through the Rockies is held up and boarded by two thugs. They rob the wealthy occupants at gunpoint and then make their getaway by handcar. From there, they hijack a horsecart on a road running parallel to the tracks. Will justice prevail in the end?
A captured Indian marauder is beaten by a gang of cowboys. Seeking vengeance, the Indians attack a stagecoach and abduct its passengers. The cowboys ride in pursuit and successfully rescue the captives.
Shows a band of mischievous cowboys being chased by Indians. A number of shots are fired at the pursuing Indians by the cow punchers, and the Indians' arrows are seen landing in the water pretty close to the fleeing men.
A band of robbers are playing cards in the foreground of the picture. Suddenly one of the gang who has been on the lookout for the stage coach rides up in great haste. They quickly dodge behind a clump of trees and lay in wait. Soon the coach appears and is stopped by the bandits. The occupants are compelled to come down from their hiding places at the point of the gun and after being relieved of their valuables, are allowed to continue on their way. As soon as the stage drives off the robbers make for their ponies and take to the woods.
After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
An inventive use of slow-motion filming helps hammer home the gag as an unconvincing 'Indian chief' hopes to dissolve some trapped wind with a popular brand of indigestion powder.
Kidnapping by Indians is a 1899 British silent short Western film, made by the Mitchell and Kenyon film company, shot in Blackburn, England. It is believed to be the first Western film, pre-dating Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery by four years.