Summary
In the untamed crucible of the Alaskan gold rush, where fortunes were forged and reputations shattered with equal ferocity, Justus Morrow, a scion of English gentility, embarks upon a perilous quest for prosperity on Caribou Creek. Leaving behind a celebrated actress wife and their young son, Morrow quickly acclimates to the rugged ethos of Rampart City. His decisive 'cleansing' of a local gambling den, orchestrated by the nefarious 'Single-Out' Wilmer and his partner 'Curley' Bud, not only earns him the instant, unwavering respect and partnership of the formidable 'Bill' Joyce, a quick-draw arbiter of frontier justice, but also inadvertently casts him into the crosshairs of R. Alonzo Struthers. This enterprising Sunday supplement photographer, representing a syndicate of American newspapers, captures the initial mêlée, but then, with a cynical eye for sensationalism, stages subsequent scenes of revelry involving miners and dance hall women. Crucially, Struthers himself participates in these staged tableaux, later substituting Morrow's head onto his own body in these compromising photographs. Morrow, discerning the potential for scandal, explicitly forbids Struthers from disseminating these fabrications. Yet, the long arm of arctic mail delays and journalistic perfidy conspire against him; a divorce summons from his wife, accusing him of infidelity based on the doctored images, precipitates Morrow’s desperate return to San Francisco, accompanied by his steadfast 'pardner,' Joyce. The 'camera never lies,' his indignant wife asserts, refusing to hear his pleas, even after he serendipitously discovers her performing in vaudeville with their son. It is in this precipitous crisis that 'Bill' Joyce, embodying the very spirit of loyalty and direct action, engineers a dramatic confrontation. Through a cunning ruse, a forceful interview with Mrs. Morrow, and a gunpoint 'persuasion' of Struthers, Joyce orchestrates a revelation of the photographic deception, dismantling the edifice of lies and reuniting a family fractured by misinformation and the burgeoning, yet dangerously manipulable, power of mass media.
Synopsis
Justus Morrow, a young Englishman of family and some wealth, went to Alaska to make his fortune during the heyday of prosperity on Caribou Creek. He leaves his wife, a brilliant young actress, and small son at home. During the early days of his introduction into the society of Rampart City, a typical mining town of the early 90's, Morrow made himself understood and respected by "cleaning out" the gambling house run by "Single-Out" Wilmer and "Curley" Bud, Wilmer's partner, a performance that won for him the instant respect of "Bill" Joyce, a miner and "quick draw" exponent of the difference between right and wrong, who took Morrow into partnership. It was during the mêlée at Wilmer's gambling place that R. Alonzo Struthers, Sunday supplement photographer, representing a syndicate of American newspapers, snapped the troublous scene, with Morrow and "Bill" Joyce celebrating the victory of the former, and incidentally made pictures of subsequent scenes in which a score or more of miners and dance hall women were displayed drinking at tables, dancing and generally carousing. Struthers, impressed with the splendid action of the photographs that resulted from his flashlight activities, showed them to Morrow, who recognized that Struthers had staged the more picturesque of the dance hall scenes, participating in them himself and permitting another man to operate the flash. Morrow pointed out to Struthers that his wife would be sure to see the pictures if they were printed in the United States papers and forbade him to use them, thus letting the photographer into an understanding of the fact that Morrow was well connected and that his wife might "start something" if she recognized him as being involved in a gambling house row. After Struthers' departure by the outgoing boat and the long mail delay of arctic weather, Morrow was struck speechless one day to receive notice of suit for divorce filed by his wife in San Francisco. It did not take Morrow long to start for the States, accompanied, of course, by his partner, "Bill" Joyce. Nor did it take long, once the young miner arrived in San Francisco, to discover that Struthers had sent broadcast, for Sunday publication, pictures taken by him in the gambling house, but that worst of all, he had substituted the head of Justus Morrow on the dance hall pictures of himself, taken in various familiar poses with dance hall women. Without definite knowledge as to where he might find his wife. Morrow accidentally discovered her and the son, singing in a vaudeville house in San Francisco, but was refused an interview by the indignant woman, who believed that the camera could not lie. In this crisis "Bill" Joyce proved equal to the occasion. He invaded the apartments of Mrs. Morrow by a ruse, demanded an explanation on behalf of his partner, threatened to kill half the police of San Francisco if she didn't listen to him quietly, sought and found Struthers and dragged him to the family confessional with a gun muzzle in his ear, in short, brought Mrs. Morrow to a realization of the folly of hasty judgments and left "pardner" with his wife in his arms and "the kid" squeezed up a delighted little bundle between them.
