Jim, Joe and Pat are all in love with Betty. Joe and Pat enlist in the Union army and leave for the front. Betty promises to give her answer to the three lovers at the end of the war. At the front Pat is given a message to carry through the Confederate lines. In doing so he meets Joe and falls before him in an exhausted condition. Joe, thinking Pat is dead, delivers the message and takes credit for the deed. Pat, upon recovering, is captured by the Confederates and put in Libby prison. After the war he returns north and finds the girl is married to Jim. Joe is hailed as a hero, while Pat comes home in disgrace. Disgusted with life, he becomes a hermit. Years later across the road from the old shack where Pat lives, a large mansion is built. Jim and his wife move into this home. One evening a tramp appears along the roadway and meets Pat, who recognizes him as his old friend Joe, who had betrayed him in the war. Pat forgives and forgets and takes him into his home. Meanwhile Betty is taken very ill and while her husband is away, a servant comes over to the shack and asks help. Pat and Joe go to the mansion, where Betty recognizes them, just before she dies. The story ends with Jim, lonely in the big mansion, going across the shack where Pat and Joe are playing checkers. The three friends are reunited as the scene fades. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis

• Plot Summary

• Short
• Western