Summary
A gleaming lattice of steel collapses into the river like a wounded deity, and with it the immaculate renown of Steve Brent—engineer, scapegoat, silent knight—who absorbs the disgrace to shield the craven Bert Thornton, heir to a construction empire built on graft and whispers. Exiled from the rectilinear cathedrals of industry, Brent drifts into the sun-scorched void of the Mojave where a nascent irrigation dream promises to coax emerald from alkali. There, amid the hiss of dredges and the salt-tinged dusk, Mary Ralston—daughter of the project’s custodian—recognizes the fugitive’s gait, the sorrowing set of his shoulders; yet she seals his secret behind eyes the color of desert chicory. When a venomous telegram arrives, inked by an old foe hungry to finish the moral execution, Mary becomes both shield and sleuth, guiding Brent through a labyrinth of water-rights machinations, sabotaged sluice gates, and the slow bloom of trust. In the final reel, truth erupts like a geyser: ledger pages flutter in the furnace wind, revealing Thornton’s initials on the purchase order for the fatal substandard beams. Reputation restored, Brent no longer needs the alias; the desert that once promised annihilation now offers pollen-yellow petals, a future irrigated by fidelity, and Mary’s hand—sun-roughened, steadfast—ready to build a life more durable than any bridge.
Synopsis
Steve Brent, a construction engineer with an excellent reputation, is blamed for having used inferior materials on a bridge that collapses. Bert Thornton, his employer's son, is actually responsible, but not wishing to expose him, Brent surrenders his position. Assuming another name, he goes west to work on a desert irrigation project where the manager's daughter, Mary Ralston, recognizes him but keeps his secret. Ralston is informed by an enemy of Steve's, but Mary helps to protect Steve's name until he is exonerated and becomes free to marry her.
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