Bud Harris, a young miner with a reputation for courage, goes prospecting in the desert with Tom Jones in an attempt to locate a turquoise mine. Their water gives out and their horses die on the way. Bud thinks that Tom has water in his canteen and strikes him down. Then the terrible, haunting thought of murdering his friend and the loneliness of the desert possess him with such fear that he flees the spot in terror, an abject coward. Tom revives, finds water and discovers a rich mine. Bud, after dragging himself out of the sandy wastes, is laid low with fever, and when he comes to himself seems to be a nerveless wreck. He becomes the butt on a ranch, where he finds employment, and is beaten and kicked about, never resenting these humiliations. One day he meets his old partner, Tom, who comes as one from the dead to tell him of his fortune. Tom exonerates Bud and tells him that he has a share in the mine. Then the coward of his conscience undergoes a complete regeneration and he goes back to the ranch and thrashes the fellows who had enjoyed insulting him. He next joins his partner and buys a full line of supplies, including an ample quantity of water to serve them en route to their mine.