Sam Whiskey

Laura Breckenridge seduces Sam Whiskey and persuades him to recover the hidden gold. She offers him $20,000 and warns that her family's name will be ruined if the theft is exposed. Sam agrees, drawn by a combination of fortune, adventure, and the chance to outwit the political circles involved.

Sam recruits Jedidiah Hooker and O. W. Bandy, offering them a share of the reward. The trio begins planning to locate the sunken riverboat and recover the gold from the Platte River in Colorado.

They locate the sunken riverboat fifteen feet below the river's surface. Unbeknownst to them, Fat Henry Hobson and his gang are watching from a nearby vantage, waiting to ambush.

Bandy fashions a diving helmet from a bucket and bellows, and Sam descends to retrieve the gold. They reach the sunken boat and find the gold fifteen feet down, but the riverbank gang closes in.

Fat Henry Hobson's gang traps Jed and Bandy, taking control of the operation. Sam hides in the riverboat's half-submerged smokestack, hoping to survive and keep the gold safe.

Thinking they killed Sam, the gang prepares to kill the others, but Sam uses one of Bandy's homemade machine guns to turn the tables. With the gold secured, Sam and his partners press on toward Denver.

Laura meets them in Denver and provides blueprints of the Denver Mint, hinting at a plan to steal and replace the gold. The team debates fleeing to Mexico but decides to press ahead with the mint heist.

Sam and his partners kidnap a government inspector and assume his identity as Thorston Bromley to gain access to the mint. Inside the Denver Mint, Sam deliberately damages a gold-plated bronze bust of George Washington on display in the lobby.

Jed escorts the damaged bust to a local smithy, where he makes a mold of the bust so the recovered gold can be recast. They prepare to replace the mint's bust with the new gold version.

While the plan unfolds, Fat Henry's gang spies on the group and steals the bronze original, mistaking it for gold. The original bust turns out to be worthless without the gold filling, prompting despair among the gang.

Undeterred, Sam and partners infiltrate the mint again disguised as plumbers. They use the mint's smelter to recast the bust back into gold bars and restock the vault.

The trio escapes via the roof just as the mint manager returns to discover the bust missing. Fat Henry despairs when the plan collapses and the supposed gold is only gold-plated junk.

On a train leaving Denver, Sam divides the $20,000 reward with Jed and Bandy, but keeps Laura for himself. The heist ends with Sam outmaneuvering his rivals even as he secures his liaison with Laura.