Freckles Winslow is on his way home from college. On the bus he encounters a crook, "Muggsy" Dolan who calls himself Jack Leach. Jack is on the run from the law, and is looking for a safe place to hide. The two men come to talking and Freckles mentions his serene home town to Jack, having only good things to say about it. Jack decides to tag along and take his refuge in Freckles home town. With Freckles help he gets to stay at the local hotel, owned by Danny Doyle, who is Freckles’ friend. Danny is about to rerun the road through town, so that it runs over a number of worthless lots of land he has bought. Danny bought the real estate because he thought he could find gold on them, using a new expensive device he has bought. Danny needs Freckles to help him get a favorable decision by Freckles’ father, who is one of the two road commissioners.
When Jack's crooked friend Nate Quigley arrives in town, he pretends to be interested in buying lots from Danny, in order to pull a scam on him. Danny gets a green light for the road development, but Jack is found dead in his hotel room. Constable Weaver gets suspicious. Freckles, who has fallen in love with Jane Potter, his childhood friend, suspects the newcomer Quigley of the deed, but doesn't seem to convince anyone else. Both constable Weaver and road commissioner Potter are fooled when two of Jack's old friends arrive in town, pretending to be FBI agents investigating Jack's death. Quigley and the two men then break in at the local bank. Freckles gets help from Danny to fix the car which the criminals are to use to escape, but the two crooks end up killing Quigley and take both Freckles and Jeff, the hotel porter, hostage. The robbers manage to crash the car and the pursuing constable Weaver is able to arrest them. The road development then starts, and Danny's finances are saved by the reward for capturing the bank robbers. After this turn of events, Jane thinks of Freckles as a real hero.[1]
