Caleb Jarvis, a mysterious old grouch, has been jilted in his youth by a young girl. Since that time he has lived the life of a recluse in a small village, shunned and despised by everyone. One day as the postman comes to his house to deliver a letter he discovers the door open and getting no response to his repeated knocks, he enters and finds Caleb murdered, lying on a couch with the assassin's revolver near him. He immediately summons assistance, but Caleb is apparently past all help. The county prosecutor leaves two policemen to guard the body and seeks the help of King, a detective, to find out who committed the crime. When King arrives the body has mysteriously disappeared, although the watchers have not stirred from the room in which it lay. King orders them from the house and starts in his investigation. He discovers a picture on the wall of the lighthouse which has a peep-hole in it, and in attempting to make a closer investigation, accidentally touches a spring that releases a trap door in the lounge that he is standing on, and it precipitates him to an underground tunnel that leads to another room. King follows up this tunnel, which comes out of a fireplace in the next room, and finds that Jarvis has been in hiding there and has not been killed at all. Jarvis seeing that he is discovered, places a bomb in the tunnel with a short fuse, but finds, after he lights it, that King has nailed down the hearth and escape is impossible. The bomb explodes and kills Jarvis, but he lives long enough to confess the following remarkable story. One day as he was walking down the village street he met a girl who was the exact counterpart of the one who had jilted him years ago. He hurried to the city and found out through King the detective that this girl was the daughter of his former sweetheart, Nellie Saunders. On reaching home he planned that he would invite her to call on him a few minutes before it was time for the letter carrier to make his rounds and pretend that he had been murdered and so throw the blame of the crime on her. The prosecutor had advertised for a stenographer, and Nellie had come to the village in answer to it. It was a case of love at first sight with them and when King cleared the clouds from their path the inference leaves one to suppose that marriage bells will soon be chiming.