After a failed stint at prospecting during the California Gold Rush, John Hicks Adams is elected Sheriff of Santa Clara County. Just weeks after he is handed a badge, he must prove that he won’t be a bust as a lawman too. A band of Confederate Partisan Rangers, led by Captain Rufus Ingram, holds up a stagecoach and makes off with a small fortune in silver and gold, supposedly to finance their war effort. During the initial pursuit, a sheriff’s deputy from a neighboring county is killed, leaving Sheriff Adams and Deputy Sheriff R.B. Hall to rally a second effort to bring the criminals to justice. Using the advanced knowledge of the California terrain that he gained from his days as a prospector, Adams finds their hideout and puts an end to their reign of terror once and for all. Years later, gunslinger-turned-reporter Bat Masterson tracks down former Deputy Sheriff R.B. Hall to get the real story behind one of the Old West’s legendary lawmen.