When a old miner refuses to allow a road to be built through a high mountain pass he owns, the California Governor asks Bat to intervene. Bat finds the holdout to be an old friend Soda Smith and all is not as the Governor thought.

Bat arrives in Paradise, Colorado to collect a gambling debt from a crooked casino owner who doesn't like to pay his debts. He also doesn't like to pay his taxes - until Bat accepts an appointment as the new county tax assessor .