Summary
A crooked financier, Earl Foster, drapes the mirage of affluence over a barren Keno County hole, coaxing a widowed matriarch to sink every cent into its phantom veins while her chemist son, Ralph, unwittingly inks the deceit. Across the gilded corridors of Foster’s San Francisco brokerage, Holly—Ralph’s sister—locks eyes with Jack Mason, a prospector whose own gold-rich claim bleeds red ink; their spark arcs against the clang of ticker tape. Once the mother treks to the dust-choked site and sees only fool’s-gold shale, Foster pivots to blackmail: marriage to Holly or Ralph faces forgery charges. The transaction is sealed in a clandestine, off-books ceremony aboard a westward train, while claim-jumper Dave Marco—Foster’s feral bloodhound—gnashes at Jack’s boundary stakes, only to be routed by a sheriff’s posse riding thunder. Jack and Ralph pursue the bridal cab in a frantic relay of motorcar and snarling motorcycle, overtaking the locomotive on a trestle that hangs like a noose above a moonlit gorge. In the final coupling, Ralph’s trembling hand squeezes the trigger that silences Foster forever, unshackling mother and daughter from the matrimonial shackles forged by paper and fear.
Synopsis
Dave Marco, a claim jumper, and his boss Earl Foster, a crooked investment broker, hire chemist Ralph Brandon to sign papers proclaiming the wealth of a certain mine. Foster then convinces Ralph's mother to invest all of her money in the mine, which actually is worthless. While she and her pretty daughter Holly are waiting in Foster's San Francisco office, they meet Jack Mason, whose rich mine has not yet earned him any profits, and the two young people fall in love. Inspecting her mine in Keno County, Mrs. Brandon learns that it is worthless, but when she confronts Foster, he threatens to have Ralph arrested for signing false documents unless Holly agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, Marco tries to jump Jack's claim but is prevented from doing so by Jack and a sheriff's posse. Foster weds Holly in an illegal ceremony, but Jack and Ralph overtake their train with the aid of a car and then a motorcycle. Finally, Ralph kills Foster, freeing Holly and her mother from his clutches.
