John Bird and Franklyn Fordham were business partners in years gone by. The firm being on the verge of bankruptcy, sought in every way to retrieve its lost prestige. Fordham, a man of honor in all his dealings, and afterward a fond and devoted father, is made the innocent offender and accused of a crime through the unscrupulous plotting of Bird. The result was the great Johnston Mystery that had baffled the police for years. Bird leaves the city after securing the valuables left deposited in the firm's safe before Johnson's death. While Fordham became prosperous, his former partner became a renegade and fell lower and lower as the years rolled on. Elinor, the cherished daughter of Fordham, was blooming into womanhood and had found her love reciprocated when Jock Manley, the blacksmith's son, came into her life. He was made a trusted employee of her father's and became a favorite for his honor and integrity. Then dark days came upon them. Bird returned and threatened his former partner, and asked as a price for his silence the hand of Elinor. To shield the family name and save them from disgrace he is forced to discharge Jock from his employ and renounce him as his future son-in-law. After a few months of disappointment and search for work, Jock is again back with his old fire department associates. In order that he may accomplish his ends, Bird, through the pretense of being a newspaper man (under the assumed name of Gorman), gains admittance to engine house and cuts the wires. At the same time a mysterious fire breaks out in the Fordham mansion, but kind providence sends a messenger, telling Jock the threatened danger. Paled with emotion and with a determination as rigid as stone, turns in the 4/11/44 and rushes madly to the rescue, for there was a higher love than even his love for duty that spurred him into the burning home in time to save Elinor and her father. Thus again Bird's scheme had failed. The day has arrived when his marriage is to be performed. As a last hope, Jock, through a ruse of illness, induces Elinor to visit him, knowing Bird would follow and thus give him a chance to meet face to face with the man that had ruined his future. This proves the undoing of the treacherous Bird and landed him into the hands of the officers and results in the reuniting of the devoted lovers.