Plot

In quest of game for the subsistence of the expedition, goes Mr. Thomas Morton. He discovers bear tracks and follows them into a forest until nightfall overtakes him. He loses his way and the next day as he is trying to get out, falls into a bear trap set by Big Eagle and his sister, Laughing Water. His cries are heard by them; he is rescued and brought back to health through the care of Laughing Water. Morton has won the friendship of Big Eagle and he shows him a vein of gold which he has discovered. Not long afterward Laughing Water and Morton are married. Five happy years have now passed and a little boy has come to bless their union. Morton, who has been communicating with his aged mother, manages to keep secret his marriage and the presence of gold, which he has planned to mine for himself. At length he receives a letter from his mother asking him to come and stay with her in her declining years. When Laughing Water is at the spring, he quickly packs his belongings, and, taking his little son, runs away. Laughing Water, broken in spirit, returns to her tribe, but is renounced by them. She becomes a wanderer and Big Eagle silently contemplates vengeance. Twenty years have now passed and Morton's son, John, announces his wedding day. Morton, who has always been afraid to visit his western gold mine, suggests that his son go there and look over things on his honeymoon. When John reaches the mine he finds that the situation is too difficult for him to handle and telegraphs for his father. On one of their many trips to the mine, John and his wife meet an old Indian squaw selling beadwork, and his wife makes purchases. While serving them the old Indian squaw notices the counterpart of her husband in the young man. Old Morton arrives at the mine and is seen by Big Eagle, who, recognizing him, lights the fuse of a dynamite stick and places it near him. Before Laughing Water, who has been watching, can do anything, the explosion takes place and old Morton and John's wife are killed, John alone surviving. He is taken to the forest home of his Indian mother and tenderly cared for.—Moving Picture World synopsis