Doctor Lambert takes his wife west to a mining town, where he can both minister and doctor. His wife is not happy and upon discovering she is pregnant, runs away with a gambler. He soon dumps her, and she comes back and dies giving birth to a baby girl. Lambert, out of his mind with rage, leaves the baby on a doorstep and vows to never have faith again. He returns to the mining town fifteen years later a drunkard. He meets young, kind Lily Sawyer and is greatly impressed by her compassionate nature. Meanwhile, the gambler has returned and decides to abduct Lily, but his partner recognizes Lambert and tells him Lily is his daughter. He kills the gambler before he can harm Lily and soon his faith returns.—Pamela Short
Dr. Lambert strove in every way to aid his fellow-men. His wife had not wanted to come west at all, and she fell an easy victim to the wiles of Clean-Up West, a gambler, whose fancy had wandered temporarily from Faro Fanny to Mrs. Lambert. When the doctor's wife eloped with West, Lambert got his first jolt, and when she returned a year later and died in his cabin in giving birth to a daughter, Lambert's mind became deranged, and he swore never to help man, woman or child again. In his delirium he left the new-born babe on the door-step of Eldorado Smith, who brought her up as his own child. Years later Lilly Smith, now grown to young womanhood, was strangely attracted by the gruff and repellent exterior of old Whiskey John, who came into her father's saloon occasionally to replenish his jug. The jug and an old dog were the only two things in life which old John cared anything about, and he begrudged the interest which Lilly was taking in him, and which he was forced to take in her, until one day Clean-Up West and Faro Fanny came into the life of the settlement. Hundreds of women had come into West's life since he ruined Lilly's mother, and Faro Fanny's soul was sore with it all. West started to make love to little Lilly while Lilly's lover, Frank Baxter, was away in the desert. So successful was West with Lilly that she promised to elope with him, but Fanny discovered the plan and attempted to frustrate it. West struck her down. Then she went to old Whiskey John, and told him the whole story of Lilly's life, and for the first time he realizes that Lilly is his own daughter. What happened to West in the next half hour removed that individual for all time, and restored John's sanity and his faith.
