Sandy, a cowboy, has saved up $2,000, and when he reads the alluring inducements of a mining company he exchanges his hard-earned money for worthless mining stock. He tells the other boys about it, and when it is finally impressed upon him that the stock is utterly worthless, the boys have the laugh on him, and when one night Sandy can stand their ridicule no longer he packs up and with his horse rides off into the night. Henry Botsford is a mining promoter, and the man who sold Sandy his stock. He has a daughter, Beth. Harvey Mortimer, a wealthy idler, has long been a suitor for Beth, but she despises him. Botsford gets into financial difficulties and knowing that if Beth will only agree to marry Mortimer, he will be able to obtain loans from him, he insists that Beth consent to an engagement. Beth refuses. Leaving his horse to obtain a drink of water, Sandy climbs down a small embankment and stumbles across a skeleton of a man. By it he discovers s small chamois bag, which contains some gold nuggets. Taking these to town, he finds that they are of considerable value. An idea of revenge comes to Sandy, and exchanging some of the nuggets for currency, he rides off to the town where Botsford lives. Meantime, Beth decides that she will never have any peace at home, since her father is always insisting that she marry Mortimer, and writing a note to her father to the effect that she is going out in the world to make her own living, she leaves. Back in the mining town Sandy meets Botsford and takes him out into a canyon some miles from town. There he brings him into an old cabin, and Sandy makes him a proposition. He tells Botsford that he has some mining stock for sale and shows him the same certificates that he bought from him. Botsford refuses to consider buying them back, and Sandy locks him in the cabin and tells him that he is going to give him plenty of time to think it over. At the restaurant Beth has obtained the position of waitress. Sandy enters, and recognizes her. He had never been much of a hand at making love, but he caught on quick, and the night told Beth that some day she was going to marry him. While out in the old cabin Botsford, terrified by strange noises, finally manages to fall asleep on the table. With the morning, Sandy again puts his proposition to Botsford, and this time Botsford agrees, and writes out his check for $2,000. But Sandy refuses to give him his freedom until he has obtained the money from the check. With the $2,000 in his pocket, he meets Beth, and tells her that if she won't marry him he is going to marry her anyhow. Picking her up he carries her to the Justice of Peace's office. Beth concludes that Sandy ought to make a good husband, and they are married. It suddenly occurs to Sandy that Botsford is still at the old cabin, and with Beth he goes out to give him his freedom. Opening the door, Botsford storms out, and discovers that the man who has held him captive is now his son-in-law.