Summary
Jimmy Slocum, heir to a prodigious fortune, is perpetually bailed out by a father whose largesse is matched only by his penchant for petty wagers. The patriarch, ever the puppeteer, funds Jimmy’s speeding tickets and concedes to his son’s wagers, even as he plots a matrimonial alliance with the genteel Katherine Fowler. When Jimmy triumphs in a $1,000 wager that Katherine’s affection is feigned, the father’s schemes begin to unravel. Emboldened, Jimmy stakes $25,000 on a self‑imposed gauntlet: he must endure a twelve‑month incarceration for a barroom brawl, then out‑wit the magistrate with a brazen retort. The judge, bemused, grants a brief sentence, only for the father’s influence to secure an early release. Disenchanted, Jimmy abandons his gilded safety net, setting out for an uncharted hamlet where destiny awaits in the form of Ethel Wheeler, proprietor of a dilapidated inn. On her land lies a spring of mineral water, a resource Jimmy commodifies into a lucrative enterprise. When the local banker threatens foreclosure, Jimmy repurposes his $25,000 winnings to erect a rival bank, marrying Ethel and cementing his autonomy. The father, witnessing his son’s self‑made ascendancy, bestows a reluctant respect, completing the arc from pampered prodigy to industrious pioneer.
Synopsis
Jimmy Slocum, whose wealthy father continually pays his speeding fines and loses bets to him, wins a $1,000 bet with his father that Katherine Fowler, whom his father wants him to marry, does not love him. Jimmy then wins a $25,000 bet that he can keep from being arrested more than once in the coming year by getting a 12-month jail sentence for fighting in a bar, then sassing the judge. His father's efforts get him released early and he vows to succeed on his own. He gets stranded in a small town where he falls in love with Ethel Wheeler, the owner of a rundown hotel, and makes a fortune selling mineral water found on her property. When the town banker tries to foreclose on them, Jimmy opens his own bank with the $25,000, marries Ethel, and gains his father's respect of his father for his success.
