Yeggs commit a robbery, and a famous detective sets out to capture them with a newspaper reporter's aid. A bottle containing a few drops of "soup" leads the detective and the reporter to the railroad yards, where they discover the remains of a campfire, and stamped into the dust nearby is the wrapper which once held the dynamite from which the "soup" was made. The wrapper is marked "80% nitro." and inquiries at a nearby hardware shop disclose the fact that this grade is to be purchased only at the main powder factory. A visit to the factory further divulges that the dynamite was bought by one "George Williams" for the avowed purpose of blasting tree stumps. Securing the signed page of the factory receipt book, the detective and newspaper man scour the slum hotels and boarding houses for the man "Williams" whose signature, reversed, they finally find on a hotel register. They raid his room, but he and his pals make their getaway. All the sleuths' efforts appear to have come to naught, then a former sweetheart of Williams, whom he has abused and discarded, offers her assistance. The fury of a woman scorned results in their capture.