- Jim Carr is the owner of the water rights which irrigate a great number of ranches. He is an unscrupulous man and decides to confiscate all the ranches by ruining the ranchers. This he does by raising the already high rates to an impossible price per acre. Robert Wilton owns a ranch and is the accepted lover of rancher's daughter Mary Mills. This arouses Carr's jealousy. When Wilton, whose lands are already perishing for water, received the notice of the extortionate raise, he rides furiously to the dam and accosts Carr, whom he finds there. Carr laughs him to scorn. Wilton rides to the sheriff and hopes that he may invoke the law, but the sheriff is "fixed" and he finds himself helpless. Murder comes into his heart almost when he thinks of the ruin that is coming to himself and other ranchers, who have pioneered and have made the desert to blossom like a rose and now are threatened by ruin. Mary's father deeply fears Carr, because his land is mortgaged to him, and when the outraged ranchers form a mob to take the law into their own hands, he joins the faction that comes to Carr's defense. One of the poor ranchers who has toiled for years on his little piece of land is a Mexican. He joins the mob, and in the deadly battle that ensues, he and Mary's father are killed. Robert in the meantime has refused to join the mob, believing that the law can still be invoked. After the battle, the Mexican woman, Pedro's wife, goes mad with grief and despair. She swears vengeance over her husband's dead body. She goes to Carr's cabin and shoots him. In the morning Robert goes to plead with Carr. He, to be sure that his own passion of soul does not master him, empties his gun and leaves it near the house. This, with the many quarrels and his words to the rancher, "Do not do this, boys, there is a better way," forms a chain of circumstantial evidence that convicts him of killing. In the meantime, the Mexican woman has gone into the desert, but realizing that another life is coming, she returns. Mary finds and nurses her, and through this charity Robert is saved. Justice at last hands down a decision and peace and love at last reign in the valley.—Moving Picture World synopsis
It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. Be the first to contribute.
Learn moreContribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content