Red Lights Ahead

Pa Wallace, an ardent member of the Whales, is offered a chance to invest $5,000 in a gold mine by the head of the Whales, Grand Harpoon F. Q. Whitney. Mrs. Wallace is opposed but their four children--Willie, George, Edna, and Mary--are all for it: if Pa makes easy money, they can continue to loaf. Grandpa, a kind but meddling old soul, also arrives for a visit. Money begins to roll in but not as fast as the children spend it. The bubble bursts when the police arrest Whitney and his accomplice Nordingham as swindlers involved in a pyramid scheme. Stone-broke and unable to pay the mortgage Pa put on the house, the clan moves back to their small, old home. The children come through and knuckle down to work to help the family recover. Then, Grandpa tells them that the gold mine never existed and the monthly checks had been coming from him, as he was anxious to prove that they weren't just loafers.