Jim Hardie reports to the manager's office in San Francisco to receive his new assignment. He is being sent to the Walking Mountain mine near Sonora, California to investigate the loss of high grade gold ore called "high grading" from the mine. Some at the mine are accusing Wells Fargo of doing it as the ore is shipped with them but one of the mine owners doubts it as does Well Fargo who wants to prove it is being done at the mine. One Wells Fargo investigator was killed in a mine accident after two days on the job. Hardie is hired as a miner and finds that his gun has had the gun powder removed from the bullets after he recovers it from the mine office on the first day. Secondly, the mine cave-in was no accident - the timbers were cut.
—Anonymous