- Cast out by his father because of his wild shenanigans, Steve King travels west, where he drowns his sorrows in drink. One night while drunk, he marries Lonely Lou, a servant who works in the saloon. Awakening to find his life seemingly destroyed, Steve takes his burro and miserable wife into the mountains to prospect for gold. When Steve discovers a strike, Lou suggests that they return to his family. Unable to face the disgrace of marrying a saloon girl, Steve decides to take poison, but Lou discovers the potion and, thinking that it was planted for her, feigns drinking it and falls dead. Believing that Lou is dead, Steve disappears to wander the country as a tramp. Meanwhile, Garst, a promoter, recognizes the value of the claim and helps Lou develop it. Five years later, Lou has become a woman of wealth and, while dining at the hotel, sees Steve working as a waiter. They are finally reunited when Steve saves Lou from Garst's advances and at last face a happy life together.—Pamela Short
- The bedraggled maid-of-all-work around Missouri Joe's saloon and dance hall is known as Lonely Lou. Joe is in love with her because, in spite of her rags and tatters, she is a very beautiful girl. Steve King, cowboy on a neighboring ranch, who has been ordered from home in the east by his wealthy and irate father, gets his month's pay, goes to Joe's and is under the influence of liquor when Joe tries to get Lou to marry him. Steve thrusts Joe aside and marries the girl himself. Next morning he realizes what he has done, and being discharged from the ranch, the ill-mated husband and wife take the pack animals and start out into the desert in search of gold. Out in the lonely desert Steve finds a ledge of mineral, but the silence and Lou's sloppy appearance tell on him and he begins drinking heavily. One day, the whiskey all gone, he contemplates suicide and pours out a cup of poison. Lou's arrival prevents his taking it, and when she sees the poison she believes he has placed it there for her. She throws it away and pretends that she is dying. Steve, panic-stricken, rushes from the hut. He breaks his leg in a fall and is found and nursed by a prospector. While he is ill, a promoter finds possibilities in the mine and Lou suddenly finds herself a wealthy woman. She rises to the occasion, dresses well and studies hard to perfect her English. Steve goes from one job to another and, finally, believing Lou dead, returns to the hut to find it the center of a great mining town. He saves Lou from the attack of Missouri Joe. The mystery of the poison cup is explained and the two are reunited and happy.
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