A young girl travels west to live with her uncle during the California Gold Rush only to find that he has been killed by Indians and his identity assumed by an outlaw.
'Black' Brown, a notorious road agent on the run from the law, stumbles on the body of John Lawrence, an honest prospector during the early years of the California Gold Rush, riddled with Indian arrows. Brown takes the dead man's clothes and papers and is able to pass himself off as a good citizen in 1850's Calaveras County. When Lawrence's sister dies, her daughter spends the little money she has to journey to California and live with her uncle. Arriving at the isolated cabin, she realizes he is an impostor, but his threats intimidate her into silence. Lacking money and protection, she immediately becomes vulnerable to the advances of the largely all-male population, and so must acknowledge Brown publicly as her uncle in order to continue to receive food, shelter, and his protection. Over time, this understanding of mutual convenience turns to affection, and he pledges to reform. When former members of his gang continue their dishonest ways, however, the now rehabilitated Brown falls under the suspicion of the local vigilante committee.—G. Taverney ([email protected])
Around the table of a New England parlor are seated friends of the Widow Lawrence. What to do with Jenny (Mary Pickford), the only child, is the topic of the conversation. Several offer to take the little girl to live with them, when the lawyer announces that the last wish of her mother was that she be sent to her uncle John Lawrence (Winter Hall), who left for the California gold mines two months previous. The idea appeals to Jenny and thus, during the big gold rush of '49, she leaves for California to live with her uncle. John Lawrence, the uncle, has been killed by Indians and his body is found by "Black" Brown (Elliott Dexter), a road agent who is being pursued by the sheriff's posse. Substituting the clothes and papers of the dead man for his own, the bandit passes as a wealthy man from Boston and lives in the little mining camp of "Strawberry Flats." In secret, however, he still plies his outlaw trade on stagecoaches and pack trains.
Jenny arrives at the cabin of "John Lawrence" and begins to straighten things out. From her bag, she takes a pair of carpet slippers which she embroidered and with a little card places them on the mantel to surprise her uncle. When Jack, as the impostor is known, enters, Jenny asks the whereabouts of her uncle. With an evil leer, the bandit advises her that he is her "uncle," and tells her of her uncle's death. Later in order to protect herself from the hands of a ruffian, Jenny is compelled to establish herself as the niece of Jack. At the cabin, Jack finds the slippers and the card, "With love, from Jenny." He begins to realize the sincerity of the little girl. Jenny refuses to sleep in the house and is put to bed in the horse shed and the next morning makes the best of things.
Taking complete charge of the house, she prepares for Jack the first good breakfast he has had for some time and a warm friendship springs up between the two. One morning, while cleaning up the cabin, Jenny finds a handkerchief in which are cut two eye holes and suddenly realizes what this man really does. In the meantime, one of the miners is robbed while taking a load of gold to the depot to be shipped home. In a rage, his partner rushes to the saloon to kill the sheriff for not giving the gold proper guard but the sheriff (Walter Long) draws first and the miner Dick Roland (Raymond Hatton) drops with a bullet through his heart. Jenny connects the robbery with the handkerchief, picks up the letter from his mother to the murdered miner and goes to her cabin where she prepares to leave immediately.
Jack enters with a new dress, bonnet and doll for Jenny but the latter refuses them and shows the letter of the dead boy from his mother, together with the bandit mask she discovered. Jack acknowledges his guilt but vows his love for her. Jenny promises to stay if he will send the gold to the boy's mother and live "straight," which Jack agrees to do.
Later, Jack becomes discouraged with his lack of success as a miner and determines to "turn one more trick." He holds up the coach in which unknown to him Jenny is riding with Jim Lyn (Charles Ogle), her date for a country picnic at Indian Bar. Drawing a little derringer, she shoots at the outlaw, wounding his right hand, then recognizing her "uncle" but doesn't betray him. Back at the cabin, at first, Jack lies and says it's his gold dust from panning but his wounded hand clearly marks him a thief. He pleads with Jenny that he could not let her support him with the washing which she had been doing for the miners, but Jenny is not won over.
At this point, a knock comes at the door and the Midnight Vigilance Committee enters. Jenny quickly throws her shawl over the gold sack and there is a battle of wits. Jack is finally cornered, however, and his immediate execution is arranged despite the heart-rending pleadings of Jenny. Just as her sweetheart is about to be hanged from the cabin rafters, Jenny returns to the room with a little white dress, which she has secretly taken from the doll, and the apparent significance of the situation dawns upon the men, who are very fond of her. They agree to give Jack his freedom if he marries the girl at once, and a justice of the peace performs the ceremony immediately.
Just after the newly married couple have left the cabin to find their future, the men find the half-naked doll and they realize they have been tricked. Several grip their guns and are about to start after the couple, when Jim Lyn, the leader, who was especially sweet on Jenny, orders the men back, saying, "Boys, I reckon when 20 men have been fooled by one woman, they better take their medicine."
