Summary
Amid the ochre scree of the Sierras where pickaxes ring like cracked cathedral bells, Mark Reid—calloused dreamer with a heart half quartz, half wound—stumbles upon a wiry interloper, Mike O’Hara, poaching his glittering birthright. Feral instinct flares; fists arc through dust motes made luminous by high-noon sun. A spectral stranger, lantern-jawed and seraphic, intercedes, converting fury into shame with a single benediction of eye contact. Repentance blooms instantly: Reid offers half his claim, turning rivalry into covenant. News of their nugget-rich seam races downhill to San Francisco’s predatory salons where Morrison, velvet-gloved vulture in patent-leather shoes, orchestrates a gilded trap disguised as partnership. Seduced by urban neon, Reid signs phantom scrip while falling—helpless as a falling star—for Barbara, Morrison’s pearl-wristed niece whose smiles taste like absinthe and possibility. Yet the engagement merely sharpens Morrison’s appetite; he strips Reid bare in a rigged stock circus, leaving the youth with lint pockets and a heart scorched by the suspicion that love itself was bait. Broken, Reid limps back to the diggings only to find O’Hara has again coaxed fortune from the earth. Together they resurrect a mercantile empire, Reid now armored in cynic’s steel, bent on skewering Morrison in retributive fire. On the eve of triumph the Samaritan reappears, ushering Barbara through mahogany doors to confront Reid—her contrition luminous, her uncle’s perfidy proven. In that candle-still foyer, ambition dissolves into mercy; revenge forfeits its throne to the hush of forgiveness.
Synopsis
When Mark Reid, a young man seeking his fortune in the gold fields of California, discovers Mike O'Hara attempting to jump his claim, he becomes violent. However, the Good Samaritan intervenes and prevents him from injuring O'Hara, Reid, ashamed of his behavior, offers his adversary a share in the mine. Hearing of their good fortune, Morrison, a promoter from San Francisco, makes the partners an offer they cannot refuse. Reid goes to San Francisco to conclude the deal; while there he meets Morrison's niece Barbara and the two fall in love. Morrison learns of their engagement just as he is about to strip Reid of his profits in a bogus stock deal. The news fails to deter him and Reid loses all his possessions, believing that Barbara was an accomplice in her uncle's scheme. Returning to the gold fields, Reid discovers that O'Hara has staked another successful claim and the two men renew their partnership. Reid rises in the financial world and is about to crush Morrison, when the Good Samaritan intervenes once again, bringing Barbara to Reid's house where his better instincts prevail.
