An old miser living in an east side tenement, forms quite an attachment for a little child in the same house. The old miser is reputed to keep a large amount of money in a safe in his room, and a couple of crooks decide to take a chance to get it. They enter his room by way of the fire-escape, and tying him to a chair, try to force him to tell the combination of his safe. The little child happens in the room, and to further compel him, they suspend the child out of the window on a rope, threatening to let her drop if he does not give the combination. A tramp sees the child hanging from the window and hastens to the police station for aid. On his way he passes a baker boy from whom he stole a bag of rolls, and the boy, following, has him locked up without giving him a chance to explain the object of his errand. The captain, however, consents to hear the tramp out, and sends a quartet of incredulous policemen, who receive a shock when they find the truth of the tramp's story. The child is saved and the crooks taken into custody.