On his way to investigate irregularities in a bank's bookkeeping, Bat encounters a gun fight in which a man is killed by two gunmen. Bat finds himself involved with embezzlers, murderers and a new friend - a thieving dog.
Bat's old friend from Dodge City, Marshal Ben Holt, asks him to help fight a scheme plotted by the power-grabbing land baron General Silas Guild. When he arrives, Bat isn't sure that the Marshal is on the side of law and order.
When a new silver strike is made in Monument City, Nevada, Bat returns to the former ghost town to check on his four year old claim and finds two claim jumpers are prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.
Bat is ambushed in the desert by two men, his horse and water stolen. Left to die he is rescued by a farmer who is now the town marshal. Bat is determined to help the young lawman gain confidence in his ability to keep the peace.
Bat returns to the small mining town Bonanza, Colorado to withdraw his earnings from a cattle drive. He discovers he died and his pretty widow has emptied his bank account.
A casino owner hires a marksman with money problems to kill Bat to whom he is deeply in debt. When the man's pregnant wife convinces him to renege on the agreement, the casino owner hires two hard cases to force the confrontation.
An old friend asks Bat to San Francisco to look into the background of her daughter's fiancée which is a cousin. Bat learns she is a frequent visitor at a casino where she seems to win but her fiancée seems to lose - even his life.
Bat is asked to take half interest in the Long Branch Saloon to help make it profitable. He does so by hiring a female piano player but a crooked mayor and Marshal force him to create the Dodge City Peace Commission to clean up the town.
Bat is called upon by the daughter of an old friend to investigate his murder in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The family runs a freight and stage line there but the drivers are being killed for some reason and the line is nearly bankrupt.
Pinkerton hires Bat to get evidence against a gang that is terrorizing a town. Bat goes undercover as a marble salesman to convince the leader that so prominent a citizen should have a statue in his honor erected in the town square.