The judge leaves a daughter, Mabel, aged eighteen, and ravishingly
lovely. The night before the murder she exhibited a revolver and
an axe in the principal saloon in town and declared her intention
of "doing up" the old man. The judge has his life insured for
$100,000 in her favor. Nobody suspects her of the crime.
Mabel is engaged to a young man named Charlie, who is seen on the
night of the murder by several citizens climbing out the judge's
window with a bloody razor and a shotgun in his hand. Society
gives Charlie the cold shoulder.
A tramp is run over by a street car and before dying confesses to
having committed the murder, and at the judge's funeral his
brother, Colonel Smith, breaks down and acknowledges having killed
the judge in order to get his watch. Mabel sends to Chicago and
employs a skilled detective to work up the case.