Defying Death

The bad blood existing between Reardon and Haley results in a fight in which Reardon is worsted. Reardon, vowing vengeance, climbs back aboard his engine while Haley resumes his station. The fight is witnessed by a number of railroad men. In climbing back to the water tank, Haley stumbles and falls between the cars.

Upon learning that a gang of smugglers are using freight cars to bring Chinamen across the border, the railroad officials order all employees to keep a strict watch for traffic of this nature.

When informed by Helen that the rival railroad proposes to cross the Salt Lake's tracks, McKay, Division Superintendent, rushes a guard of men to Lone Point. This temporarily blocks the rival road's plan, but only until its force of men has been strengthened.

Their demand for money having gone unheeded, Garibaldi and his gang wreck Number One. Howard, who attempts to interfere, is battered into insensibility. The criminals then place a note in the man's pocket warning the railroad officials to heed their demands in the future.

Under the influence of liquor, Griffin foolishly displays a roll of bills. Wheeler and Walter, yeggmen, see the money and trail the traveler to the station. The men learn the berth he is to occupy. Hastening to a bridge under which the train must pass, they drop to the roof of one of the cars when it appears. Helen, transferred to Burnett, is a passenger on the train. By mistake, Griffin gets into her berth. Because of the man's condition, Helen consents to allow him to keep her berth. The girl takes the one which Griffin's ticket calls for. An hour later, Helen is awakened by a peculiar noise outside the car. Hastily dressing, she sees the window being raised. Wheeler's face appears at the window. The man foils Helen's attempt to shoot him, disarms her and then climbs back to the roof of the car.

Brandt, a defaulting cashier, hiding in Lone Point in his effort to throw detectives off his track, cuts the wires of Helen's telephone to prevent her from calling for help, binds and gags her, and boards the outgoing Limited. Freed by Detective Sheridan, the two of them get into a gasoline speeder standing on the sidetrack and pursue the Limited.

Attempting to prevent an armed robbery in the paymaster's office, Helen is bound and gagged, and the thieves escape on a hand car. With her feet still bound by wire, Helen endeavors to pursue on foot, but stumbles and falls across the rails of the track of an oncoming train.

An action movie serial that premiered in 1924

Brent, the night operator has been knocked unconscious by a piece of lumber projecting from a passing freight, and has been rendered temporarily insane. Meantime, a furious storm arises, a track walker discovers a washout and wires a warning to Helen, who sets the danger signal for the Limited which is due in ten minutes.

Lockwood, the old, one-armed flagman at Lone Point, tells Helen and a young soldier of his experiences during the Civil War, and how he lost his arm. The Civil War flashback sequences consist of archive footage from Kalem's Railroad Raiders of '62 (1911), rather than newly filmed footage.

King attempts to tighten the brake of a freight car standing near the summit of a steep grade at Lone Point. Suddenly, the brake chain snaps and the train commences to roll down hill. Helen sees King's peril, rides to a point just before a curve, crawls hand over hand across a rope which she has stretched across the track, and snatches King from the car moments before the car is dashed to pieces as it leaves the rails of the curve.