Crossed telephone wires enable Helen to overhear a plot between Joe and Bill, escaped convicts, to join a number of Chinese who are being smuggled into the country in a freight train. The girl telegrapher notifies the railroad detectives and when the car in which the Chinese, cooped in barrels, are hiding crosses the Mexican border, the detectives surprise the Celestials. After a desperate fight, the Chinamen are subdued, the detectives take their places inside the barrels. Bill and Joe board the freight a few miles from the border. Helen who has been following them in an auto, leaps from the speeding machine to the side ladder of the racing train. Over the roofs of the cars the brave girl pursues the fugitives. Joe and Bill turn upon the girl and attempt to hurl her to the ground. Leveling a pistol, Helen subdues the convicts and compels them to leap into the auto which, driven by Conrad, one of the detectives, has been keeping pace with the freight. Later, Helen accompanies the officials when the latter raid the rendezvous of the smugglers and assists in capturing the entire band.