A prospector in the Gold Rush days of ‘49 strikes pay dirt after a long struggle. He stakes the claim and stays to guard it while his wife and ten-year-old son hurry off to the claim office to register it. Two scoundrels observe the action, and go in pursuit. Arriving after the wife and her son, they trick her into leaving the queue waiting for the agent to arrive. A woman who pretends to faint is the accomplice who leads the wife to a cabin. The scoundrels lock the wife in, but she ties her son to a rope and lowers him out the window to bring help. She is rescued and manages to register their claim in the last moment.