Attempting to prevent an armed robbery in the paymaster's office, Helen is bound and gagged, and the thieves escape on a hand car. With her feet still bound by wire, Helen endeavors to pursue on foot, but stumbles and falls across the rails of the track of an oncoming train. Helen frees herself, breaks a circuit so that a semaphore fifty yards away flashes a warning, and the engineer brings the train to a stop less than three feet in front of Helen. Word is sent to a nearby switch tower, the handcar is derailed, and the desperadoes making their escape are thrown down an embankment, only to find themselves with Helen herself to deal with until help arrives.