The Golden Fetter

Schoolteacher Faith Miller inherits $10,000. Edson, McGill and Slade, three enterprising crooks, own the Moonflower, a worthless mine. Slade goes East to unload, and hearing of Faith's good fortune, he approaches her and finds her easy prey: she buys a share in the mine for $9,000. Advised by friends to take a rest, Faith goes to inspect her mine. Arriving at the town, she is insultingly approached and the man who has annoyed her is knocked down by Jim Ralston, a young mining engineer. She goes to the home of Big Annie, who tells her that the mine is worthless. The miners, touched by her beauty and helplessness, engage her to teach their school, the only available pupils being Pete, a half-wit, and Jim, who is held in connection with a hold-up committed by Edson and McGill. At first Jim rebels, but when he sees the teacher, he becomes a willing student. Faith recognizes him as her protector. Jim conceives the idea of salting the mine, and wires Slade to the effect that the mine is rich with silver and not to sell. Slade returns. Edson and McGill, pursued by a posse, reach the schoolhouse and persuade Jim to conceal them. Flynn, at the head of the posse, accuses Jim of hiding the bandits and is killed by a shot from an unseen hand. Jim is arrested as the murderer. Faith intercedes, begs him to flee and is handcuffed to him. They escape and take refuge in a mountain cabin. Jim shoots the fetter apart, breaking his wrist, and insists that Faith return home. As Jim tells Slade of Faith's whereabouts, Slade notices the fetter on his hand, takes him to the outskirts of the town and the miners prepare to bang him. Faith sells her interest in the mine back to Slade, and Pete, as he delivers a note to her from Jim, also tells Faith of Jim's peril. The outlaws, Edson and McGill, are shot as they resist arrest, Edson's dying confession of Flynn's murder reaching Jim's executioners just as they refuse to listen to Faith's pleading for her lover's life. Faith, weakened by the trying ordeals through which she has passed, sinks to the ground, only to be taken into the waiting arms of the man she loves. —Moving Picture World synopsis Faith Miller's health is ailing after years of teaching school in the East, her doctor recommends she travel West to the mine in which she has bought a half interest from Henry Slade, a dishonest speculator. Though her health improves, Faith discovers her mine is worthless. The townspeople take pity on her and appoint her as the schoolmistress, but there are only two pupils: a half-witted boy and James Ralston, a young mining engineer who is suspected of train robbery. Ralston, accused because he was seen with some disreputable characters before the hold up, falls in love with Kate. However, when he shelters Edson and McGill, the robbers, because they nursed him back to health when he was ill, the sheriff is killed and Ralston is arrested for the murder and sentenced to be hanged. As Faith pleads for her sweetheart's life, a deathbed confession from Edson, the real murderer, prevents the hanging. Ralston then salts the mine and dupes Slade into buying Faith's half interest, leaving Faith and Ralston with a happier life. —pickfordfan16