Dick Logan, a young writer in search of local color, stops at a little border town in the Southwest and engages lodging at the Mexican Inn. Two tramps see the amount of money he has and plan to secure it. In the town he befriends a Mexican girl by stopping her uncle from beating her for having broken a water jar. That night, to while the time, he plays faro and breaks the bank, which greatly augments his already large amount of money. Retiring to his room, he is awakened by the efforts of the two tramps to get into the room. He steals out and asks for lodging for the night at a nearby house, which happens to be the home of the Mexican girl and her uncle. Here he gets real "local color," as the tramps have followed him and they enter the room through the window, while the Mexican, who also covets his money, enters through the door. The girl, however, saves him from harm, and it looks as if Dick had found a real heroine for a real romance.