J. R. Chance U.S. Marshal

President Ulysses S. Grant dispatches Justice Department Special Services Officer, U.S. Marshal J.R. Chance to investigate suspected railroad construction fraud. Chance confronts a ruthless conspiracy that will stop at nothing in its quest to monopolize Union Pacific construction contracts and the lucrative right of way land grants that go with them. Fast paced action sweeps the young marshal, and the Cheyenne woman who saves his life, across the Wyoming basin on a trail that ultimately leads to the financial center of the plot in New York.

Credit Mobilier mastermind and mysterious majority shareholder Jake Gelb joins Diamond Jim Trask in a plot to corner the gold market. Gelb and Trask organize a Midas Compact syndicate to corner the gold market.