Because he desires to shield the father of the girl he loves, though he suspects another to be the real culprit, Clavering takes upon himself the reproach of business treachery and seeks a hiding place as operator at a little telegraph station in the desert. There comes the man he suspects, and Clavering wrings a confession from him, but lets him go when he declares that he is married to the girl. Too late he discovers his error, but in seeking to shield the girl from further distress finds happiness from an unexpected source.