An elderly rancher is shot to death over a dispute about a hidden treasure
J. Pierce Buchanan has spent a lifetime tearing a living out of the open range—battling droughts and wildfire, Indians and bandits. At ninety, he has accumulated a fortune in gold pieces—some $50,000—but he will never get the chance to spend it. In the still of the night, someone sneaks into the old man’s bedroom and tortures him at gunpoint in a fearsome attempt to lay his hands on the treasure. When J. Pierce won’t speak, someone shoots him five times and disappears into the darkness.
 
Heirs come out of the woodwork demanding a piece of the old man’s fortune, as the cowhands and yard men of the ranch scour the thirty-thousand acres searching for the stash. Into this frenzy of greed ride Glen Strange and Bobby Trapp, a pair of honest cowboys just looking for a scrap of work. The J-Bar Ranch has contracted gold fever, and J. Pierce Buchanan will not be the last victim.