A headless horseman is terrorizing an old prospector who has retired to a small ranch. Buck goes to visit and ends up at the home of Karl Mueller, who tells him the story of Don Miguel, an old Spanish soldier who built the hacienda Mueller lives in, and who was later beheaded by bandits. The legend is that the headless horseman is Don Miguel's ghost.; After finding an empty stage with no passengers or baggage and the driver dead nearby, Buck goes to the Gopher City sheriff. There he finds that the bank's $20,000 in reserve cash has been substituted with counterfeit money.