"Why, old man, won't yon sit down and have a game with me?" "No, thank you," answered young Childs. The butler of the gambling house entered, "A letter for you, Mr. Archie." The letter was from his father, a well-to-do farmer, and a very prominent man in a little town upstate. It contained a check for $1,000. "The last," the old man wrote, "he would send." At four o'clock in the morning the money was gone, and Archie, in despair at his loss, agreed to become the head of a fake mining company. Proud to see his son at the head of what he believed to be a big financial enterprise, the old farmer invests all his money in the company. The climax came one night during a supper the promoters were giving in a private dining-room of one of the biggest hotels. In the midst of the revelry one of the attendants rushes in, shouting, "the police have raided the office and are coming here!" The warning is sufficient to those who know, and young Archibald W. Childs learns for the first time that he has been a party to a swindle, and that he must either fly with the rest or submit to arrest. They escape from the office and into a taxi, where Archie's chorus girl friend persuades him to assume a disguise and leave the country. The plan works and they are soon on their way to Europe. It is the father of young Childs who now has to pay. Ruined, he finds himself repulsed and insulted by his friends who have all lost heavily in the fake company. And alone in his empty and desolate house, he would be about to pay with his life for his son's folly, if the charity of one of his wealthy neighbors had not saved him.