Had Josh Barkley known the trouble he would soon face, he and his sidekick, Mike Gray-Eyes, would have never tied up in front of the sheriff's office in Junction Flats. But they did, and faster than a deacon takes up a collection, Josh finds himself tangled up with a local rancher's headstrong daughter.

First, she declares she has every intention of not only marrying him, but helping him carry out his duties as deputy sheriff, including accidentally knocking him unconscious while he is fighting with a hold-up man.

If that weren't enough, Josh soon learns he has landed smack dab in the middle of a town infiltrated by a Union spy ring intent on stealing sixty thousand dollars in Arizona gold headed for Galveston and the Confederate Navy.