Credit Mobilier mastermind and mysterious majority shareholder Jake Gelb joins Diamond Jim Trask in a plot to corner the gold market. The post Civil War gold market is severely depressed. Short sellers have driven gold into a secular bear market. Trask reasons that given the limited pool of gold in circulation, well financed investors could acquire positions sufficient to control the market and dictate price. Gelb and Trask organize a Midas Compact syndicate to corner the gold market. Justice Department Special Services Officer, U.S. Marshal J.R. Chance and his Deputy Mourning Dove cracked the Credit Mobilier ring that defrauded the federal government of over twenty million dollars in Union Pacific construction contracts. Unfortunately the trail of arrests in the case falls short of the mysterious majority shareholder and mastermind. The last remaining link to the majority shareholder, named Burnswick has escaped to San Francisco. President Grant orders Chance to pursue him. Chance and his Cheyenne maiden join him on the journey.