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.

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.