Jess was on the hunt for Chance Beauregard when he runs into a trapper, Chad Buntner, who is down on his luck. He agrees to let him ride with him just long enough to catch Beauregard, but Buntner turns out to be cursed with bad luck. Things keep happening to Buntner, and when Jess tries to leave him behind, Buntner takes a bullet meant for Jess. He feels guilty about Buntner taking the bullet, so he reluctantly agrees to let him accompany him. Along the way, they run into a cattle rancher, George Wesley, who is in a feud with an unscrupulous sheep rancher by the name of Barney Fiddler. Wesley has a couple of his men transport two hundred thousand dollars to his bank in San Antonio. When they end up dead and the money is missing, Wesley runs into Jess and convinces him to find the men responsible for the killings and get his money back. Jess takes the job, but he’s not sure he’ll survive this one with Buntner having one problem after another. He begins to wonder if he’ll ever finish the job or end up with a dirt blanket because of Buntner and his seemingly cursed luck that hangs over them like a dark cloud.