Bessie Smith loved Jack Collins, a young machinist, but because Bert Bruce, a rising young attorney, showed his attentions, her mother frowned on Jack and urged Bessie to welcome Bruce's attentions. Then Jack secured a license, managed to see Bessie and perfected plans for elopement. Jack received a call to repair a machine in the outskirts of a neighboring town. It so happens that in this village an epidemic of burglaries has taken place. When Jack peddled into La Mesa on his bicycle the constable saw the kit of tools he carried and placed him in jail. In despair it suddenly occurred to Jack that his rival, Bert Bruce, could identify him and he accordingly induced the constable to ride over to the attorney's office and ask him to come and identify him. When Bert heard that it was his rival Jack, in such a predicament he swore he did not know him. Meanwhile Bessie was waiting for Jack to come and keep his appointment while the constable returning to the jail, upbraided Jack for sending him on a fool's errand. Bruce then got out his automobile and called on Bessie and her mother, asking them to go for a ride. Mrs. Smith was delighted, but Bessie, waiting for Jack to elope with her, refused to go along. But her mother was insistent and poor Bessie was forced to go, much against her will. Riding through the streets of La Mesa, Bruce speeded up his car beyond the limit and took no notice of the constable, who arrested them and brought them to the same courtroom as Jack was in. Of course Bessie promptly set his honor right as to Jack's innocence. Jack, striking while the iron was hot, called on his honor to immediately marry him and Bessie, holding the unwilling rival for witness. -Moving Picture World, March 2, 1912, p. 804.