- News has just reached Lone Point that a force of Mexican bandits raided one of the American border towns the previous night, killing several people. Helen saves the newspaper containing the story to show to her friend, Julius Hecker, a rancher who is coming over that morning to unload a car of agricultural implements. Hecker is disturbed by the news. He then asks that Helen bring any message she may receive for him over to the freight shed where he will be working. The message arrives over the wire. As Helen is taking it down, a stranger peers into the window. He understands the Morse code. When Helen starts for the freight shed he is disappearing down the road on a motorcycle. On her relief period Helen starts for the Hecker ranch to visit Mrs. Hecker. Returning to the station for a moment, she takes down an official order to hold the Limited for a special car containing a party of naval officers. At the ranch the face of the mysterious stranger is again seen peering in at Mrs. Hecker and Helen. They run out. On her way home Helen spies the stranger walking and leading his motorcycle towards the ranch. She follows. She is astonished to see Hecker and a Mexican set upon the stranger and bear him into the barn, shouting: "Now we've got you, you American spy." Peering in the window Helen sees that the place is a veritable arsenal. Hecker and his son chase Helen, who has seized the stranger's motorcycle and started for the Lone Point station. Hearing the freight train whistle, Helen at once thinks of the naval officers and rushes to Lone Point. She rides up the freight incline onto the loading platform, through the open doors of the now-empty freight car, and leaps her motorcycle to a flat car on the passing freight. Crawling back over the tons of the intervening cars, she gives the warning to the officers. The train is stopped, an automobile is commandeered and the officers arrive at the barn just in time to save Holmes, the secret service agent, from death. Helen stamps out the fuse lighted by Hecker when he saw his plans failing and receives the congratulations of all for her bravery.—Moving Picture World synopsis
- Helen, the operator at Lone Point station, reads in the morning paper of a Mexican raid on Columbus in which the Mexicans were armed with American rifles, which they must have purchased recently in the United States, despite the strict embargo on shipping arms to Mexico. Harry Holmes, a mysterious motorcyclist, watches Julius Hecker, a rancher, and his son, Fred, unloading a carload of freight which Hecker tells Helen consists of agricultural implements and supplier. Helen notices the motorcyclist listening to a telegram for Hecker that comes over her wire. She tells Hecker about him, and Hecker is concerned. Helen promises to visit Mrs. Hecker at their ranch that afternoon. The mysterious stranger sends a telegram in code from Helen's office. Helen copies it, and shows it to Hecker when she calls at his house. As she does so, she is startled to see the face of the motorcyclist peering in at the window. Helen darts out of the house and follows him. She trails him to a barn on Hecker's ranch. There she is surprised to see Hecker and a black-bearded accomplice come upon the stranger from behind and make him a prisoner. She hears Hecker exclaim: "I have you now, you damned American spy!" Hecker's accomplice sees her, and Helen flees on the stranger's motorcycle. Helen hears the freight whistle blowing and remembers that attached to it is a special car carrying a party of naval officers. She stops the freight, enlists the aid of the naval officers, and returns with them to the Hecker ranch just in time to save the life of the motorcyclist, who turns out to be a secret service agent, when the smugglers blow up the barn which is stored with rifles and ammunition which they had been smuggling into Mexico.
Moving Picture World, November 17, 1917
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content