The year is 1853 and the gold rush in California has entered another level of intensity, some might say insanity. People are now coming from as far away as China and Australia to join those Forty-Niners, seeking their fortune in the gold fields. The land grant of Fremont Enterprises along the Merced River in east central California, continues to produce gold in great abundance. Where most miners measure their gold in ounces, the Fremont production is measured in pounds! Early on, the company recognized a major vulnerability in their operation. The gold taken from the mine in Mariposa, a more remote location, had to be transported to Monterey where it could be entered into the banking system of the Bank of San Francisco. There it was turned into moneyed assets for the company, a process that had made John Charles Fremont one of the early millionaires of California. Fremont is away now, living as a professional politician in Washington City, thousands of miles from his business. He has turned its management over to one of his partners, Jeremiah Warner. The management of the growing company, Fremont Enterprises, is proving to be a dangerous undertaking. A Mexican gang has been terrorizing central California, led by a man called the Robin Hood of California, Joachim Murrietta. His brother Manuel, attempts to rob the Gold Wagon transporting Fremont Gold, and a blood vendetta begins. This 21st volume, entitled, "The Shootout at Poker Flats," takes up the story as Jeremiah sets out on a routine delivery of gold from Mariposa to Monterey. This narrative of the mid-nineteenth century demonstrates the stages of growth the young America goes through on its way to becoming a continental nation. This is volume number twenty-one in the Jeremiah Warner Mountain Man Series.