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- In the wayward western town known as Hell's Hinges, a local tough guy is reformed by the faith of a good woman.
- Denton rides into Yellow Ridge with a money-belt filled after years of toil in the mines beyond the desert. The local gamblers covet the fortune but fail to get Steve to try the roulette table until the enticer, Trixie, comes to exercise her charms on him. He blindly follows her lead and is watching the wheel with stern stare when a telegram is received. He asks the woman to read it. She lies when she says it contains good news, for it tells of his mother's critical illness. In the morning Steve awakes to find his belt is empty. In his feverish search through his pockets, he comes upon the telegram. As the truth dawns he goes to the telegraph office to send home a wire. The operator hands him the news that his mother has died. Wild with rage, he shoots up the town and drives away with Trixie lying limp over his horse before him. His heart is now filled with hate for all women and Trixie becomes his slave in a community where he tolerates only the scum of the section. Across the desert comes a pack train of Mississippi farmers who have left their fertile valleys to hunt for gold. Their water is all but gone and their stock is fagged. Their leaders plead with Steve for aid, but the white race may expect nothing from him. Back to the wailing women and children go the despondent leaders. Mary Jane, a waif among them, is not cowed by the story they tell, and by night she goes to repeat their please to the harsh white man. He looks upon her as another victim to share Trixie's lot, but her innocent, fearless attitude toward him makes him hesitate. Meanwhile, his men have carried off the women of the train. As the men pursue and bloodshed is in the air, Steve yields to the little girl and trades the safety of those people for his rich mine, leaves his wealth to his followers and guides the strangers out of the desert.
- D'Artagnan goes to Paris and becomes a member of the famous King's Musketeers. The Queen sends him on a dangerous mission to England. His three companions are either captured or put out of commission in the course of fights on foot and horseback. D'Artagnan reaches London and recovers from the Duke of Buckingham a pair of studs the Queen gave him as tokens of regard. On the ship on which he returns the hero is captured by his deadly enemy, De Rochfort. Jumping over the side, he clings to the chains of the vessel till it reaches port in France. He restores the studs to the Queen, and she has them put back into the necklace where they belong. Cardinal Richelieu has induced the King to command the Queen to appear wearing the necklace at a great court ball. When he sees the complete necklace, his plan to embarrass the Queen falls through. In addition to obtaining the favor of the Queen, D'Artagnan is rejoiced over the safe return of his comrades and his reward from his sweetheart for his bravery.
- Tom "Wolf" Lowry, the owner of the Bar Z ranch, tolerates no intruders into his life. When he hears that settlers have entered his valley, he goes to confront them but has a change of heart when he sees Mary Davis, a young woman who has come West to find her missing sweetheart, Owen Thorpe. Mary nurses Lowry back to health after he is wounded by Buck Fanning, the real estate agent who sold Mary her claim, when Lowry prevents Banning from raping Mary. Lowry soon falls in love with Mary and she agrees to become his wife, having lost all hope of finding her former sweetheart. By coincidence, Lowry finds Owen, but when Owen and Mary meet and plan to run away together, Lowry insists that she honor her agreement to wed him. On the day of the wedding, however, Lowry has a change of heart and takes Owen and Mary to the minister and tells him to marry the two lovers instead. Lowry then leaves Mary a note saying that he is going to Alaska. Five years later, Mary and Owen are the parents of a young son, named Tom, and the recipients of a letter from Lowry who now lives in isolation in Alaska.
- Jack Harding, a wealthy ne'er-do-well, becomes involved with a Broadway vamp. When she is murdered, Jack is falsely accused of the crime and must turn for help to his lawyer--his wife.
- Jim Maitland (Gordon Mullen) loses his last cent gambling the Double Stamp saloon and gambling hall, and shortly after it closes, he robs the proprietors "Keno" Bates (William S. Hart) and "Wind River" (Herschel Mayall) are robbed, at gunpoint. After the surprise, they track Maitland down, and Keno shoots him dead on self defense. Keno goes through his belongings and finds a letter and a locket; the letter announces the arrival of the deceased's sister, and the locket has a cameo picture of Doris Maitland (Margaret Thompson). Thus, Keno tells Wind River they must do a heap of lying. Meeting the girl at the stagecoach's arrival, Keeno feels responsible for the innocent and attractive Ms. Maitland; he tells her a white lie, that her brother was a good man, "killed in a mine accident," who had left her a cabin and money - and Keno turns his own cabin over to Doris. Keno and Doris began to fall in love. Anita (Louise Glaum), a dance-hall girl, aggressively tries to seduce Keno. Keno repels her, and later, the dance-hall girl catches sight of her rival when Keno muses on the cameo. Anita decides to expose his lies to Doris in a private conversation at the cabin. First, Doris gets into a fight with the saloon girl but then Doris accepts the painful truth. Furious, Doris confronts Keno outdoors, and his admission of having killed her brother is followed by her sending a bullet into his body. Keno, disillusioned, wounded, staggers back to the Double Stamp, asking Wind River for his saddle bags so he can ride out. But not far from town, as he lays dying, Wind River tells Doris all the facts about her brother. They find Keno, and Doris nurses him back to health.
- Fred Martin is a Southern spy. A northern dispatch bearer is captured, and the signature to his messages is forged and Martin is sent on the dangerous mission of luring the Northern troops into an ambush. He accomplishes this, and a terrible battle results, in which the Federals are driven back. The work of Martin is so damaging to the North that plans are laid for his capture, and John Bruce, a secret service man, is assigned to the task. He goes to Martin's home town and presents a forged letter of introduction to the Martins, purporting to be signed by Fred Martin. He is welcomed into the home and to further his ends makes love to Anna Martin. While in the Martin home the Northern troops surround the house and Bruce, fearing that his plans to capture Martin will fall if the field is not left clear for him to return, is compelled to make himself known to the Northern officer. Fred Martin is expected on a visit that night, so Bruce shows his credentials as a secret service man and instructs the soldiers to secrete themselves about the house. In bidding good-bye to Anna he drops the passport, and she learns the awful truth. Anna has been expecting her brother, and has given the signal, a candle in the window, that the coast was clear. Gun in hand, Bruce awaits Fred, and the anguished girl sees the spy in the moonlight, crouching behind a bush. Galloping towards home, Fred is surprised on a bridge by two northern sentries. Dismounting, he hands them a pass hoping they will be deceived by the northern uniform he is wearing. In swift succession he delivers crushing blows upon the faces of the sentries, and they tumble off the bridge into the water, and leaping on his horse he gallops away. With swift strokes one of the sentries gets to shore, and leveling his rifle takes a quick shot at Fred as he goes around a bend in the road, little thinking it will hit the mark. Fred's horse is struck, and leaping into the air it turns a complete somersault backwards and falls on Fred, Crushed and hurt, Fred extricates himself from the dying animal, and crawls away. The delay has saved him, for the northern soldiers awaiting him give him up in the early hours of the morning, and when Fred drags himself to the door he is unobserved. Anna and her mother put Fred to bed. In his wounded condition he is helpless, and Anna realizes that he must be captured unless she saves him. Attempting to leave the house, her way is barred by a northern sentry. Donning her brother's clothes she manages to affect her escape, and leaping on a horse gallops swiftly away. Bruce has determined upon a bold stroke, and impersonating Fred he goes to the union colonel and tells him a detachment of southern soldiers is nearby, and attempts to lead the northern soldiers into an ambush. In the meantime Anna is making a wild ride, sparing neither the horse nor herself, and she arrives in time to bare Bruce's plot, and accuse him. On her part, Anna has fallen desperately in love with Bruce, and he has lost his heart to the brave girl, but each buries personal feeling for the sake of their respective countries. Bruce is arrested and quickly tried and convicted of being a spy. He is led out in the field, and a dozen soldiers face him with leveled rifles. Anna sees the impending execution and with an agonized scream darts across the field, but the rifles thunder a volley and the man she loves falls dead. The picture ends with Anna sobbing over the dead secret service man.
- Confederate soldier Frank Winslow is terrified of the war and eventually runs away from battle. But when he finds himself behind enemy lines with vital information, he must decide between his fear and his conscience.
- Joe Elk was a half-breed Indian and greatly admired by Walter McRae, factor of the Big Otter Trading Station, the farthest north of the outflung posts of the Hudson Bay Fur Company. Joe Elk, despite his white blood, had been accepted by the Indian tribe of which his uncle, Troubled Thunder, was chief, and it was settled that upon the death of the uncle, Joe Elk would become chief. Joe Elk had a great longing to visit the cities of the white men and above all worshiped at the shrine of McRae's daughter, Alice. She, unaware, of the feelings she inspired in the Indian, liked him impersonally, as did her father. Joe Elk visited Montreal with McRae, and when the factor, his daughter, and the Indian returned to the north, they were accompanied by Bruce Smithson, an acknowledged favored suitor for the girl's hand. Joe Elk brought back with him a determination to erect schools and give the children of his tribe the advantages of the white men he had seen in Montreal. The ideals of Joe Elk were not received in any too friendly a spirit by the Indians, however, and he met with no assistance in his desire to erect his schoolhouse. He learned that the feelings of the white girl for him were not the same as he held for her, but that, instead, it was Smithson who was the favored suitor for her hand. The unwillingness of his people to aid him in his desire to uplift them embittered Joe Elk, but encouraged by his white friends he stuck doggedly to his task and completed his schoolhouse. His determination to follow up the ideals of the whites, caused the tribe to cast him off. Then, he in turn, apprised by Alice McRae that he could never hope to win her, turned from the whites and sought to revert back to the ideals of the Indians. There came a blizzard. The Indians, shut off from their food supplies, robbed the storehouse of the company, leaving the factor, his daughter and Smithson without food. The protests of Joe Elk were unheeded and in the middle of the night, he was bound captive and forced to desert the outpost with the other Indians. A day's march away he was given his share of the stolen food and then offered the choice of accompanying the tribe or of returning to the whites. He chose the latter course. McRae, in attempting to protect the food, had been killed. The girl and Smithson faced death from starvation when Joe Elk suddenly appeared and took command of the situation. Followed many days of privation and untold suffering while the three walked many miles across the frozen lands of the north. Unknown to the others, Joe Elk saved his own meager food supply for them. When all three faced death, he forced his food on the man and the girl, sending them on, while he remained behind to meet his Maker. The girl and the man were saved and Joe Elk, though he died, was the Dawn Maker for his tribe, for the ideals for which he had really died were eventually carried out by the whites, whose devoted admirer he had been.
- Mary Beresford is the devoted and self-sacrificing wife of a man whose ambition is great, but whose energy in achieving that ambition is less than nothing. He has a fairly responsible place with a well-known firm and holds it solely because his wife does most of his work for him after hours in their home. One day a particularly important stack of papers is given to Al Beresford by his employer; a report must be in the hands of their most distinguished client that night. Al dawdles through the day and at night takes the unfinished job home. He and Mary start to work it out together, but he pleads a headache and goes to bed. She finishes the work and delivers the papers in person to Elihu Jasper. Jasper is a powerful operator in Wall Street and lives alone in a big mansion. He is attracted to Mary and in an effort to help her summons Al to an interview. He soon finds that the man is unworthy of consideration, but because of the woman he gives Al many tips that increase his income and enable the Beresfords to move into palatial quarters. Jasper is a frequent visitor there, bored by the man's egotism, but secretly admiring the woman. There comes a day when Beresford is convinced that his rise is due entirely to his own efforts, he regards the wife who has made his position possible as a hindrance and urges her to give him his freedom. A widow in society has attracted him. Mary departs and the world swallows her up. Jasper is informed of the situation by her maid. His mind quickly formulates a plan. Al Beresford is wiped out in the street and commits suicide. Then comes the long hunt for Mary, but not until Jasper goes into the market to thwart a plot to deprive him of a profitable mine does he discover her as the secretary of his broker. He saves the mine and wins the woman.
- Prospector Jim Alton stumbles upon a dying woman, while traveling across the desert, she implores him to care for her little boy Joey. Jim takes the boy to town, where he encounters Joey's brutal father, Razor Joe, and falls in love with Jennie, a young girl whose father is dying. After running Joe out of town, Jim settles down to make a home for Joey. Jim rides to the neighboring town to bring back Dr. Howard after Jennie's father takes a turn for the worse. Soon after, the old man dies and the doctor convinces Jennie to return to his home and marry him. Upon discovering that the doctor already has a wife in New York, Jennie leaves him, but, too proud to go home, accepts a position in a dance hall. Meanwhile, Razor Joe and his gang kidnap Joey. Jim follows, confronts them with his guns drawn, and rescues the boy. All ends well as Jim and Jennie are reunited and, together with Joey, begin life anew as a family.
- Misao, daughter of poor Japanese farmer Ichii, is in love with Yoshiro, but consents to marry Toyomo, who pretends that he wishes to marry her, and offers her father one hundred yen as a dowry. Misao writes Yoshiro telling him that she is resolved to sacrifice her own happiness upon the altar of family needs. While Yoshiro is reading and brooding over the letter, old beggar Horisho finds him. Misao once helped Horisho by dividing her last crust with him during the famine; now Horisho determines to help the lovers. He goes to Toyomo's home and begs him for a hearing, but Toyomo kicks him out. That night while Toyomo makes advances to Misao and telling her of his deceit and how he doesn't intend to marry her, Horisho slips into the room and kills Toyomo, then tells Misao that Yoshiro awaits her by the fishing boat and that she must go while Horisho remains behind to aid her escape. Toyomo's servants, finding his body, call in the Japanese and a mob sets out for the beggar. He is killed but lives long enough to see Misao and Yoshiro safely in a boat out to sea.
- Peggy, a rambunctious young American girl, goes to Scotland to visit her uncle. Her American ways both shock and eventually delight the people of the old village--especially the handsome young minister.
- Ordered to foreign waters, Ensign Carver bids his fiancée goodbye and sails for Japan. Carver, his chum Blake, and two or three other officers, take shore leave at Nagasaki and go sight-seeing. They visit a Japanese garden and meet Myo, a beautiful Geisha girl. Carver falls in love with the girl. So infatuated is he that he refuses to return to his ship. Blake, in order to save Carver from himself, attempts to arrest him, but Carver makes his escape. Blake, to save Carver from disgrace in the service, tells the captain that Carver has fallen and broken his thigh and will be compelled to remain in the hospital for some time. Carver marries Myo and remains in Japan and writes to Cecelia, breaking the engagement. Two years later, Cecelia's father Senator Ridgway is ordered to Japan on diplomatic service. They meet Carver in the Japanese Tea Garden. He is now a derelict, spending most of his time drinking. Carver learns that Senator Ridgway is desirous of procuring certain papers from the Japanese government and in order to regain his lost favor in Cecelia's eyes attempts to steal the papers from Baron Yoshido. He is watched by Takura, Myo's deposed lover, and followed to Senator Ridgway's apartments, where Carver commits suicide rather than be captured by the Japanese soldiers. The picture closes with Myo sobbing at her shrine in the garden.
- Cliff Hudspeth, the leader of a band of outlaws in Arizona, has won his place by the killing of notorious gun-bullies. At their headquarters, in the Gila Mountains, in consultation with "Ace High," his lieutenant, he plans depredations on the neighboring settlements. Although Hudspeth is powerful, their rule is disputed by El Salvador, a half-breed, and his following of desperadoes. Desert Pass is the scene of many conflicts between the contending bands. Rumors of the arrival of miners with gold causes El Salvador to send "Cactus" Fuller, his henchman, to levy tribute by a hold-up, which is successful. Flushed with triumph, he boasts in the "Golden Fleece" saloon of the ignominies to which he would treat Cliff Hudspeth if he ever met him. Hudspeth arrives and makes Cactus, whom he throws out of the saloon, realize that something must be done to retrieve a shattered reputation. Coming out of the saloon, Hudspeth sees Norma Wright, a milliner, standing at the door of her little store, and waves her inside, as he anticipates trouble. The shooting commences and Cactus is defeated. As Hudspeth is preparing to leave town Norma denounces him as a cold-blooded murderer. Stung almost to madness by the girl's accusation, he seizes her and gallops out of town. At his retreat he locks the stupefied girl in a room and seeks to drown the memory of her words with whiskey. The whiskey, and his awakened conscience, bring him to review his life, and, half delirious, he sees his victims pass reproachfully before him. The girl, too, becomes aware of the human side of the man and next morning she brings him around to her way of thinking and extracts a pledge that he will never willingly kill another human being. Soon after there comes from a member of the legislature offer of a pardon and restoration to citizenship if Cliff will undertake to rid Arizona of El Salvador. Hearing of Cliff's new appointment, El Salvador is wild with rage, and burns the town and drags Norma away to the mountains. Cliff Hudspeth rescues her and kills El Salvador, although mortally wounded himself. He places the girl on a horse, which bears her to safety, and passes away consoled that his last killing was in her defense.
- Running Wolf, the son of the High Chief of a Southland tribe, is fascinated by the vision of an Indian maiden that appears to him at intervals. He gently declines the advances of Nona, a woman of his own tribe, to his father's sorrow. One Bear, an exhausted Indian, staggers into the camp and tells them of a tribe of fierce Indians far to the north, called the Tribe of the Three Brothers. He also describes a beautiful Indian girl whom Running Wolf recognizes as the girl of his dreams. He journeys north to secure the Indian maid. He arrives, defeats the two brothers in battle, and the Indians calls upon the third terrible brother who always wears a grotesque mask over his face and whom they regard with superstitious awe. Running Wolf previously sheltered the Indian princess who was lost in a rainstorm. The terrible third brother appears on the scene, but Running Wolf makes a dash for him and he retreats. The chase leads into the forest, where Running Wolf unmasks the mysterious personage and reveals the face of Nona, the maiden of his own tribe. They make their escape back to the village of his father.
- Wealthy John Steele has a handsome young son, Frank, on whom he pins his hopes. But riches lead Frank not into social standing and duty, but into depravity, drug-addiction, criminal activity, and finally to tragedy.
- The U.S. Army and the Indians sign a peace treaty. However, a group of surveyors trespass on the Indians' land and violate the treaty. The Army refuses to listen to the Indians' complaints, and the surveyors are killed by the Indians. A vicious Indian war ensues, culminating in an Indian attack on an army fort.
- Van Dyke Tarleton is an artist. He is absorbed body and soul in his latest creation, "Lucifer, Son of the Morning," but lacks a model to depict the brooding evil, the smoldering, sardonic sin that he has visualized in the spirit's face. Naomi Tarleton, his wife, is a beautiful and gentle creature. Tarleton has an attack which necessitates a sojourn in the desert, and he, with his wife, arrive in Tophet, an Arizona border town, where "Bowie Blake," bad man, witnesses their arrival. Tarleton recognizes in Blake a Lucifer in the flesh, and insists that "Bowie" become his model. His demand is refused. Later Blake becomes enthralled when he sees Naomi. Tarleton witnesses the meeting from a window and determines that his wife shall accomplish what he has failed to do. He sends her to the gambler, telling her to beg Blake to come. She does this, and Blake becomes the model. Tarleton insults his wife continually in Blake's presence to prevent the brooding evil, sardonic hardness, and the grim deadliness in the eyes and face of his model from disappearing. One day Tarleton faints at the canvas and the doctor advises that he be taken to the mountains. The three find an ideal camp, and the painting goes on, Tarleton insulting his wife more and more, until Blake decides to leave them, as he can stand it no more. He hesitates on the road, not willing to leave Naomi alone with Tarleton, and eventually returns to find that "Red" Gleason and Jose Ramirez, two outlaws, have killed the painter and are drawing cards to see who shall possess the woman. He kills them both, and takes Naomi to a cave farther in the mountains. Through an injury, Naomi loses her mind. Blake treats her as a child, until her mind becomes clear. He then tells her that he intends to have her as his own. Naomi exerts her influence, and he fights his battle, and wins over himself, upon which he agrees to take her back to town. They stand where the trail leads to the desert town. She holds her hand out to him: "What can I say?" she cries plaintively; "What is there for you and me to say to each other?" Bowie remarks: "I'm sayin' just this: some day I'm comin' after you." She looks at him and answers softly: "Yes, I think you will do that, but I make no promise, there are things to be done, that time and striving will do. It is in your hands, Bowie." "That's all I ask," he answers. "I'm takin' that chance."
- "Draw" Egan, a notorious bandit of New Mexico, has come to the end of his tether. His gang has been dispersed, many slain, and more in jail, and there is a reward of $1,000 offered for Egan, "dead or alive." While drinking in a saloon at Muscatine, Egan chances across Matt Buckton, a leading citizen of the neighboring village of Yellow Dog. Yellow Dog is a town infested with gunmen who make life miserable for the few respectable citizens. Buckton is on a still hunt for some strong men who will shoulder the unenviable responsibilities of sheriff, and put the fear of God and the law into the hearts of his undisciplined fellow-citizens. While Buckton is thinking over his seemingly impossible quest, the bully of Muscatine enters the saloon and accosting "Draw" Egan, finds himself crumpled upon the floor without opportunity for repartee. Buckton is so much impressed by the quietude and deftness of Draw Egan's work that he immediately offers him the job of cleaning out Yellow Dog. So Draw Egan, as William Blake, is installed as sheriff of Buckton's promising community. William Blake soon has the bullies and gunmen of Yellow Dog well in hand, with law and order restored by the capable ex-bandit. At the time when the respectable citizens are singing the praises of the new sheriff, one of the worst of Egan's old gang, Oregon Joe, strolls into town, sizes up the situation, and holding a threat of betrayal over the sheriff's head, proceeds with the aid of the tough element to undo the sheriff's good work. For himself Egan cares little, but while endeavoring to live down his past and lead a clean life, he has fallen in love with Buckton's daughter Myrtle. Day by day he submits to Oregon Joe's insults and the tough element gradually gets the upper hand. Things have reached such a pitch that one day the gunmen, headed by Oregon Joe, decide to drive the respectable citizens out of town and run the place for themselves. It is up to the sheriff to decide, and his manhood asserts itself. He confesses the evils of his past life, throws himself on the mercy of his fellow citizens and promises to surrender to the government if they will allow him one day to restore order. He makes good; the gunmen are whipped into submission and Oregon Joe, the blackmailer, meets his just reward. The sheriff surrenders and is locked up in the caboose, but the next morning a delegation of citizens greets him with the assurance that to them Draw Egan has ceased to exist and that Yellow Dog only recognizes Sheriff William Blake. Myrtle Buckton is one of the delegation.
- A parson, in love with a girl who is betrothed to a rich Count in her family's hope of partaking in the Count's fortune, uses his pulpit in a scheme to shame the family into allowing the girl to break the engagement and marry him instead.
- Brilliant but besotted attorney, David Harmon, wins a big case but ends the day in a dingy waterfront flophouse. His fiancée puts him on a sailing ship in an attempt to get him to dry out, but once at sea a storm wrecks the ship and strands Harmon on a tropical island. He rescues the daughter of a native chieftain from being sacrificed to the lava gods and together they live an idyllic life for a time. Harmon is drawn back to civilization though and he returns to his former city only to find that his fiancée has wed his best friend. Another bout of drink finally brings Harmon back to realize that his true life is back on the island so he returns to once again find his beloved about to be sacrificed, this time with their son in her arms.
- Abraham Lincoln is shown in his youth addressing an audience of villagers on a street corner. A terrific thunderstorm comes up, driving his auditors away, and Lincoln mounts his horse and rides away. The storm increases in fury, and Lincoln is compelled to seek shelter at a farmhouse owned by a widow, Mrs. Barnes, who has a 10-year-old son, Harry. Mrs. Barnes prepares a hearty meal for Lincoln, who dries himself at the hearth, and when the storm has ceased wishes to pay Mrs. Barnes for the meal. Knowing his poverty, she refuses to accept anything, and Lincoln gravely gives her an I.O.U., reading: "I.O.U. the price of one good meal. Also my life, as I might have lost it in the storm. Abe Lincoln, Lawyer." Ten years later the Civil War breaks out, and Harry Barnes enlists. During the course of the war the Union soldiers take up headquarters with a Southern family, and Harry meets Betty and falls in love with her, and secures her promise to marry him after the war is over. As the Union soldiers move on they are caught in an ambush, and Harry's horse is shot from under him. He leans into the thicket and in a running fight with his pursuers manages to elude them and takes refuge at Betty's home. Betty is fearful that Harry will be captured, and provides him with a suit of civilian's clothes, and that night he endeavors to steal back to his regiment. He is captured, however, and according to military rules is held as a spy, being caught within the enemy's lines without his uniform. Harry sends a letter to his mother telling her of the facts, and she makes an impassioned plea to General Porter, the Southern soldier for her son's life, to no avail. Harry is shot, and a pathetic and dramatic scene takes place as the mother fondles her boy's lifeless body and calls for vengeance upon the heads of those responsible for his death. A month later General Porter lays plans to crush the North, and sends his son Bob to General Lee with plans of the Union fortifications. Bob has a narrow escape from capture, and in his flight comes upon the home of Mrs. Barnes. With her heart heavy with grief over the death of her son, her sympathy goes out to this hunted youth, and she hides him in the room formerly occupied by Harry. Bob has thrown down his coat, and the letter to Lee drops out. Mrs. Barnes reads it, and in a flash she plans a terrible revenge on General Porter. While Bob is sleeping in thorough exhaustion after his nights of peril, she hides his clothing and substitutes her son's uniform, and when the Union soldiers come hunting for Bob she helps in his capture and accuses him of being a spy, turning over to the Union officer the letter to Lee and telling him that Bob came there posing as a Northern officer. Bob is arrested and held for trial as a spy. The failure of Bob to deliver the letter leads to a terrific battle, in which the Confederates are driven back. Mrs. Barns, in calm contemplation of her work, realizes what an injustice she has done, and filled with remorse has terrible visions which nearly drive her mad. She finally resolves to appeal to Lincoln, and hurries to him. Her plea is overruled by the cabinet, but when Mrs. Barnes lays Lincoln's old I.O.U. in his hand and demands payment of his obligation, he is persuaded to sign the pardon which is rushed by fleet messengers to save the Southern boy's life.
- After his wife dies in childbirth, mountaineer Jim Grimsby names his newborn daughter Bill, and raises her as a boy. Remaining a boy in name only, however, Bill soon wants to style her hair and wear the latest fashions. She soon develops a crush on the new sheriff, Waldo Whittier. Appalled at the prospect of his "son" marrying Waldo, Jim decides to test the sheriff's grit, and so, believing that Waldo will be too frightened to come after him, he robs a casino. The sheriff does pursue, however, and, further impressing Jim, Bill pulls a rifle on Waldo to protect her father. Now certain of the sheriff's manliness, and convinced that his daughter has not forgotten how to act like a man, Jim returns the casino's money and agrees to let Bill and Waldo continue their courtship.
- A confederate soldier gives up his life in order to save his rival.
- An outlaw on the run comes upon a widow and her small child. When the child is bitten by a snake, the outlaw risks his life by riding into town to get a doctor.
- Lillian Hillary's mother encourages her to marry a rich man after her father's death and the loss of the family fortune. She chooses Bert Werden, who is more wholesome than her other wealthy suitor, financier Graham Henderson. When Werden loses his fortune, Lillian's goading causes him to work night and day dealing in the stock market. Although he regains his fortune, his health soon suffers and he develops an obsession with making money. Werden neglects Lillian, who misses his attentions. After Werden forgets their third wedding anniversary, he responds to Lillian's displeasure by coldly handing her a $50,000 check. When Henderson tries to gain control of a syndicate to bankrupt Werden so Lillian will leave him, Werden, to save himself, asks her to give the check back, but she refuses. Thinking that Lillian will accept Henderson, Werden is about to shoot himself when he overhears her tell Henderson that she refused Werden's request so that he would go broke and forget about greed. Werden sends Henderson away and is reconciled with his wife.
- Exiled from Mexico, wealthy Spanish grandee Don Jose crosses the border and is captured by a band of Indians under Chief Black Bull. All of those in the caravan are killed, with the exception of Don Jose's baby daughter, who has been secreted under the wagon train. Black Bull takes the child into his tribe and brings her up like one of his own children. Years later, John Cobb and his partner become lost in the desert. Cobb is found unconscious beside the body of his partner by Black Bull's adopted daughter, now known as Little Fawn. Cobb is taken to the Indian village. There he falls in love with his rescuer, Little Fawn, and marries her. Soon after an Eastern financier offers to buy the mining claim which Cobb and his dead partner had been working before they became lost in the desert. Cobb sells out at a good price and takes his bride back East to Washington, where he introduces her as a Spanish lady. At a reception in Cobb's home two of the Indians in Black Bull's tribe who come to Washington to see the Great White Father, visit Little Fawn, as they continue to call her. Their visit greatly scandalizes society women at the reception and believing Little Fawn to be an Indian they snub and "cut" her until the girl's spirit is crushed. Little Fawn steals away and travels overland to the reservation. Cobb follows her, but too late. Black Bull, after revealing the secret of her birth, points out the mound that marks her grave.
- Jabez Flint, miser and pillar of the church, holds the small New England town where he lives. Flint forecloses on the property of Widow Ames, rousing the indignation of the minister, David Dowling. The Dowlings take Mrs. Ames home, and the following Sunday the text is: "It is harder for a camel to pass through a needle's eye." Jabez leaves in the middle of the sermon. The next day when a delegation calls on him for a donation he tells them that they will get nothing of the sort from him, but that if they will depose Dowling and call a new man that he will build them a new church. This is done and Dowling, brokenhearted, retires. Before the new meeting house is finished Flint is stricken with small-pox. Fearing to die, he sends for the new minister to read him the scripture but the preacher is afraid to go near the diseased man. In despair, Flint summons Dowling. The old minister goes to him and helps the village doctor save Flint's life. Dowling is reinstated, his salary doubled, and the Widow Ames receives back her home.
- The Colonel is at a financial low ebb, and his only recourse is to get his horse safely to the big race and win. But obstacles appear at every turn.
- While Ethel Duprey stars in a play about an adventuress involved with a married man, her life comes to imitate art as she herself begins an affair with Ernest Hale, another woman's husband. In the play, the adventuress rejects the wife's pleas to give the man up, after which the wife kills herself. In real life, when Cora Hale comes to beg for an end to the affair with her husband, Ethel's first impulse is to take her cue from her role, and to refuse to break off her relationship with Ernest. She reconsiders, however, and urges Cora to make herself more attractive in order to win Ernest back. Cora follows the advice, and as a result, Ernest falls in love with her all over again, and ends his romance with a disconsolate Ethel.
- Everett Nelson was born on a farm and is an only son. He does all the hard work on the place for his father, who keeps the country bank. Unable to stand the bondage any longer, Everett leaves for New York in quest of work. While job hunting he sees a sign on the door requesting the services of a janitor. On entering to apply for the position he finds himself on the stage of a theater, where a rehearsal for a musical comedy is in progress. The astounded manager gazes at this apparition, and then an idea strikes him. He hires the "Clodhopper" for a rural number in his show. How the "Rube" makes the hit of his life as well as showing he is not to be laughed at as a prodigal son is shown in the events that follow.
- A powerful contrast of two kinds of women, opposite in their moral code and way of living, yet extremely alike in the dominating sex impulse.
- Jim Carson, a young Tennessee mountaineer, and Millie James, a mountain girl, are worried over the condition of Jim's mother. Millie nurses her tenderly. Jim's worry is increased by a note which he has received from John Calhoun, a miserly landowner, stating that, unless he pays the overdue rent on the shack which they occupy, that Jim will be evicted. Realizing that terrible shock would be dangerous to his mother, Jim goes out and attempts to borrow the money. He meets with no success. Meanwhile, Calhoun, accompanied by two deputies and his overseer, Ned Simms, goes the rounds of the cabins to collect his rent. He arrives at Jim's cabin. Jim being absent upon his mission, Millie states that they have not the rent, whereupon Calhoun orders them evicted and the men at his command place the dying woman out on the roadside on a mattress, also throwing their scant furniture into the roadway. The shock of the eviction kills the mother, Calhoun goes on his way. Jim arrives at the cabin and learns of the eviction and the death of his mother. Shortly afterwards he leaves to wreak his vengeance upon Calhoun. The mountaineers carry the dead woman into the cabin and restore the furniture to its original position. Jim Carson, by a short cut, waylays Calhoun, shoots at him and kills his horse. In a desperate struggle between the two men, Calhoun's revolver is accidentally discharged and Calhoun is killed. The body is discovered and Ned Simms and a posse set out upon the trail of Carson. He is captured, placed on a horse under a tree with a rope about his neck and left there, Simms knowing that at sunset the horse will return to the stable, leaving Carson to hang. Simms returns to the cabin of Carson and finds Millie there and taunts her with Jim's fate. The mountaineer whose horse Jim borrowed his already arrived on the scene. He hears the argument in the shack, goes to the window and covers Simms with his own rifle. Millie leaves on horseback and rescues Jim. She liberates him and at her request Jim rides towards the North, where Millie promises to join him after burying his mother.
- Billy, who is the little son of Captain Andrews, commandant of a western army post, has one ambition in life, and that is to become a good soldier. This he has confided to his friend, Sergeant Hogan, and the sergeant takes pains to foster the idea. He really needs all his courage to face a new situation that has come up in his life. His father is going to marry again. While he knows absolutely nothing about his prospective stepmother, he can conceive of no one worthy of taking the place of his beloved mother, who lies in the little cemetery outside the fort. In spite of Billy, however, the wedding takes place. The newcomer tries in every way to win over the little fellow, but beyond politeness his friendship stops. Soon after the wedding his father is called at the head of his regiment to quell an uprising of the Sioux Indians, forty miles away. He leaves his bride in little Billy's care. The distant trouble is but a ruse on the part of Lame Bear, the Indian chief, and now, with his picked braves, he swoops down on the weakened garrison at the fort. The defenders of the fort are so few in number that it is but a question of time before they must surrender. Billy, bearing in mind the admonition of his father to take care of his stepmother, takes her away from the fort by a secret passage and hides her in a cave in the hills. Suddenly he observes the wavering men at the stockade. Bethinking himself of his bugle and hoping to lead the Indians to believe that his father and the regiment are returning, he blows the signal to charge from a distant knoll outside the fort. The outcome of that bugle call saves the garrison and draws Billy and his stepmother together.
- Gambler "On-the-Level" Leigh gives up his profession for his little sister, Alice, whose precarious health demands that she move to the mountains. There, the gambler meets the fiery dance hall girl Coralie whose advances he rejects. His funds exhausted from the expense of the move, Level unwillingly returns to his old profession, but Coralie induces the dealer to "cold deck" Level, and he loses every cent. Out of desperation, Level decides to hold up the passengers of the stagecoach while unknown to him, Black Jack shoots and kills the driver for the express box. Learning of the driver's death, Level surrenders himself to the law and is jailed. Escaping from his cell, Level discovers Black Jack uncovering the express box and arrests him. Level returns to town with the real murderer, is cleared of all charges and is reunited with his sweetheart, Rose Larkin.
- Shy Joel Parker seems bound for nowhere, until Abbie Nettleton enters his life. With her prodding, Joel goes from timid nobody to a baseball star with bravura.
- Edna Johnson, a girl of the underworld, is employed by crooked politicians to carry out a "frame-up" on Richard Wade, who is running on the reform ticket for Mayor. They place Edna in an uptown apartment hotel, where she poses as a girl of good standing and a settlement worker. Here she meets Wade. A friendship springs up between them. Feigning sickness, she sends for Wade. While he is in her bedroom she throws her arms around him. The crooks in hiding behind the portieres take a flashlight of the scene and later tell Wade that they will publish the scandal. Wade leaves for the gold fields and strikes it rich. Two years later he meets Edna, who is now really in love with Travers, a clean cut young miner. Wade, to save Travers from an unhappy marriage, and to get revenge, tells him the story of Edna's life, and Travers breaks his engagement with Edna.
- Allegedly sent to Germany as an American war correspondent, William Berner, who quickly wins the confidence of the German military brass, is really a British spy. Then, he learns that as part of the new Allied strategy, the house where he is staying must be bombed. Choosing to ignore the fact that the Germans are his enemies, William saves the lives of the three German women who are in the house with him, but before the British high command can question his loyalty, he gives up his life for England after he fights his way into Pit Forty-Three, a German stronghold, and then wires the British to bomb it, leaving himself no time to get away.
- An narcissistic woman with the ability to charm, Leila Aradella reaps delight from preying upon weak men. Her first victim is John Morton, a talented lawyer, whom she ruins both morally and financially. Her second victim, Rex Walden, the generous son of society matron Mrs. Walden, becomes her complete slave. Mrs. Walden sends her elder son Franklin to try to dissuade Leila from toying with Rex's affections. Franklin, however, also falls under Leila's spell, and Rex is driven to suicide by her callous behavior. Desperate, Mrs. Walden enlists Adele Harley, a girl of strong moral character, to fight Leila for Franklin's affections. Adele's determined victory causes Leila to lose her confidence, and in a drunken state, she cuts her own face with a shard from her shattered mirror. Permanently disfigured, Leila ends a broken and lonely woman.
- In one of those cosmopolitan boarding houses that exist only in New York lived, among others, two staunch friends of different nationalities, Paul Cardoza, an Italian, and Emil Vorstman, an Austrian. Both were struggling upward to success, and both had forgotten old animosities in their allegiance to a country that offered them freely great opportunities. Nina Antinni, the prettiest girl in the establishment, was the object of their devotion, and Nina, although an Italian by birth, hesitated to make a choice between the blond-haired Austrian and her dark-complexioned fellow countryman. And so the romance resolved itself into a trinity of friendship. The war broke out and all was changed. One by one the cosmopolitans were called back to their respective countries. Emil Vorstman answered the call first, and then Italy, throwing her challenge to Austria, claimed Paul Cardoza. Before sailing Emil had placed his fate in the hands of Nina, but blood being, after all, stronger than water, Paul was the victor. Even this did not destroy the friendship of the three. Nina, who was a trained nurse, joined the Italian Red Cross, hut the fortunes of war kept the three comrades apart. The little Italian town where the Red Cross hospital was situated was in a northern village of Italy, and one day to Nina, watching over her side and wounded, the word came through Paul Cardoza that the village must be evacuated and the wounded men moved. This was the first meeting between the affianced lovers. Paul and his troops left the town, but in the contusion of the retreat Nina was left behind. And then the Austrians pounded into the village. As Nina watched and strived to aid the persecuted peasants, she recognized in the Austrian captain in command Emil Vorstman, Vorstman, inured to the brutalities of the campaign, sees his first love at his mercy, and for a brief moment is about to throw honor to the winds in his secure triumph. His better nature and the memory of the old loyal friendship prevail, and when the returning and now triumphant Italian army returns he is able to look his old comrade Paul in the face. Paul, not to be outdone in generosity, aids Emil to escape, even at the risk of his own life.
- The Rev. Joshua Trent, through old age, was supplanted by the Rev. John Gunn. Mrs. Brand, the wife of Colonel Brand, the leading man of the city, headed a delegation of women to receive the new minister and introduce him to the retiring one. Trent received him with a cordiality that was not returned. One day as Gunn was dining with the Brands a small girl, having finally located the whereabouts of the new minister, asked him to come and administer the last rites of the church to her father who was dying of smallpox. Gunn recoiled and quickly slammed the door in the girls face. Col. Brand was greatly surprised but made no comment. As the girl was running down the street she met Trent, who, learning of her mission, went with her to her squalid home, administered the last rites, and adopted her, fulfilling his promise to the dying man. When war broke out Colonel Brand received a commission in the Southern army, Gunn spied for his brother, who was captain in the northern secret service, and by attending an afternoon tea at the home of the Brands, learned of General Lees plans. He sent this news to his brother and thereby brought about heavy losses to the Confederates. General Lee, in a conversation with Brand, told him that his losses were no doubt caused by the work of spies, and started an investigation. The spy, working in conjunction with Gunn was apprehended, but managed to escape. He was pursued, however, and killed. Old Trent was arrested, suspected of complicity with the spy. A note was found on the dead spy signed The Minister which thanked him for the money and the information. The note was shown to the old minister and when asked if he had written it, replied in the negative. When he was searched a note was found on his person, much to his surprise and horror, expressing thanks for the money forwarded and for the information given, which was of great value to the north, and signed by the chief of the U. S. Secret Service. The note was slipped into the old ministers pocket by Gunn who feared for his own safety when a search was being made, Trent pleaded his innocence, but Colonel Brand ordered him imprisoned. Nellie, the name of the girl adopted by Trent, visited him and the old man tried to cheer up the girl. At the trial Trent was sentenced to death and taken away to await his execution. Just as the sergeant was to give the command of Fire, a distracted, disheveled man rushed in upon the scene. It was Gunn whose conscience had troubled him. A week later a freshly made grave bore the inscription To the Memory of John Gunn on the tombstone. Hand in hand, Trent and little Nellie laid flowers upon the mound, kneel and pray fervently for the soul of the dead man. -- Moving Picture World synopsis
- Bob Wiley had staked out a homestead in New Mexico, five miles from the border town of Lawton's Ridge. Wiley was a pioneer, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, and a devout believer in the superiority of his country to any other land on the face of the globe. He lived in a whitewashed cabin, over which the Stars and Stripes forever waved, with his little son, Bobby, and a faithful Indian, Joe Good-Boy. Wiley had lost his wife in the rough pioneer days. When his boy was yet a baby, he chanced on gold in the bed of a stream that ran through his clearing which gave him another incentive to save all he could and make his boy a rich man. While, however, he was drawing out more gold daily and his bank account in Lawton Ridge was growing steadily, a pair of corrupt local politicians, attracted by the wealth of the find, conspired to rob him of his homestead on a technicality. In this they succeeded and Bob Wiley finds himself dispossessed by the agents of a government he has served in its hour of need. He goes to Washington to prove his claim, gets no redress, and returns to find his land preempted and his little boy dead. His heart is filled with bitterness against his own country and he seeks revenge by joining the bandit forces of Pancho Zapilla who is preparing to raid Lawton's Ridge. Entering the village as a spy he tells the colonel in command of the American troops that Zapilla contemplates a raid on a town several miles distant. This information sends the troops off on a false scent and leaves Lawton's Ridge open to an attack by the bandits. But Wiley gradually awakens to the enormity of his offense and by courage and devotion he saves the town, thwarts the bandits, pledges his allegiance to the flag, and becomes once again a loyal, patriotic American.
- Marie Chaumontel, a spy for the Germans during World War I, vamps her way through the French high command, accumulating state secrets as she discards lovers. Captain Henry Ravignac commits suicide because of her, after which his brother, Lieutenant Charles Ravignac, vows revenge. As a result, he pretends to be a German spy and then becomes an assistant to Marie, all the while gathering evidence against her. Finally, he accumulates enough to hand her over to French authorities, after which he is hailed as a hero for so damaging German espionage operations.
- Jim Morrison, an English army officer who comes from a very old and prominent family, marries the ravishingly beautiful but unscrupulous Cleo, who has no qualms about using her sexual allure to get the luxuries she wants but that her husband can't provide. When Jim is sent off to war, Cleo embarks on a series of affairs, one of which results in her becoming the love slave of a German spy--the very spy that her husband has been assigned to track down.
- In Belgium, at the outbreak of the war, Russian agent Olga Raminoff shoots at a German general when the enemy enters town. Ray Bourke, an American traveler, gives her the protection of his name, but nevertheless both are sentenced to death. They are rescued by an allied rescue plane and later, bound for home, Ray meets an old college friend, Curt Schreiber, who is in the service of the German government. Schreiber has important papers to be delivered to Washington and, knowing that he will be searched on board ship, gives them to Ray. Olga beseeches Ray to give the papers up for her sake, but his word to Schreiber is sacred. Nearing America, Ray tells her that he will make an effort to return the papers if she will marry him. Once married, they settle on his estate, where Schreiber comes to visit one day. Leaving suddenly with a borrowed suitcase, Schreiber opens the bag and discovers his papers. Thus, the German is able to retrieve his papers without Ray breaking his promise to Olga.
- Molly Ashley, a child of the slums, is charged with being an accomplice to a shoplifter. Although innocent, she is convicted of shoplifting and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Jim Tracy, the leader of a band of gangsters, rescues Molly. The following morning Detective Stone is assigned the task of locating and running down Jim Tracy's gang. To secure evidence against the gang, he disguises himself as one of the gangsters, runs into their place, and pretends that the "cops" are after him. Tracy and the gang take him in. Molly falls in love with Stone and discovers his true identity. One of the crooks gets sore at Jim and betrays them to the police. Jim accuses Molly of betraying them. Stone resents his accusation. A fight follows and Jim is killed. Stone takes Molly away and gives her a chance to be self-supporting.
- Wealthy young man Steven du Peyster encounters more adventures than he might have expected when he accepts a wager that he can live successfully on six dollars a week.
- Betrayed by a man when she was a naive young girl, Honore hates all men and takes her revenge on every man she can. When she meets General Durand, the uncle of her betrayer, she sees a chance to ruin his whole family. Durand falls in love with her and proposes, and she sees her plan for revenge about to come to fruition. Then she falls for a young French soldier who knows nothing about her past. Complications ensue.