A Race for Life (1913)

As the story opens we see Edythe Farney, a telegrapher, in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad, holding a love conversation with her sweetheart, Larry Peyton, a civil engineer. He finds it hard to tear himself away from her side to go to his duties twenty-five miles away at the Gordon Surveying camp where he is employed as superintendent. As he is about to say good-bye, Grace, the eight-year-old sister of Edythe comes running in crying and holding fragments of her broken dolly in her hands. Larry tells her not to cry, that he will bring her a dolly the next time he comes to town, a great big one that goes to sleep and closes her eyes when she is laid down. On his way to the camp Larry stops in a store and buys the dolly he had promised Grace. We next see him superintending the work at the surveyor's camp. Coming across a bunch of his men who are neglecting their work and playing cards, he censures the foreman who resents to the extent that he aims a blow at Larry. Larry knocks the foreman down. The men come to the foreman's aid, but they are no match for the physical strength of the young engineer. They all go back to their work with the exception of the foreman who is discharged and goes away grumbling that he will get revenge. Larry goes into the rough temporary shanty that is his office. Telegraph instruments are there, and his knowledge of telegraphy has permitted him to hold a telegraphic conversation with Edythe. While sending one of his love messages to Edythe, he hears a slight noise at the door. He closes the key, goes to the door, picks up a paper and reads the words; "Take a tip from a friend. Look out for Bill Dalton, your foreman, and his gang. They are after you to do you bodily harm, yours in haste, a friend." Before he could realize just what it means, he hears footsteps approaching and the voices of men swearing "get revenge." He opens the door to see hurrying toward the cabin, Dalton and his crowd of toughs. He closes the door, bars it, and as Dalton and his gang knock for admittance. He asks them what they want. They tell him to come out or they will break the door down, that they are going to teach him a lesson he will never forget. In answer a gun is fired, and a bullet comes through the door. Larry rushes to the single window, bars that, places the furniture against the door, shouts to the men that if they break in, they do so at their peril, for he will kill the first man that shows fight. He rushes to the telegraph instrument and a call for help goes over the wire to the station where Edythe is employed. Edythe hurries to the dispatcher's office in search of her father who is an engineer on the road and whose engine is waiting to assist the California Limited up the grade. Her father cannot be found. She rushes to the engines, tries to persuade the fireman to start it and go to the assistance of her sweetheart. The fireman refuses to go without the consent of the engineer. Almost crazed with fear of what might be happening to her sweetheart, Edythe climbs into the cab of the engine and calls to some of the railroad men to come with her. She rushes to the throttle, pulls the lever and the great monster starts to move and gains speed with wonderful rapidity. The scene switches to the surveyor's camp. The door is being battered down. One of the toughs attempts to make an entrance. A shot is heard from within. With a howl of rage, the man falls back with a wound in his left arm. As the cabin is reached the engine is brought to a standstill by Edythe, and heading the men she rushes toward the cabin. The door has been broken down, and the gang have rushed in upon Larry, and as the girl with the men following, dashes up to the door, they find a peculiar spectacle confronting them. Larry is standing with his back to the wall, holding above his head a box with the word "Dynamite" written upon it. The men standing in front of him, realizing what will happen if he throws the box, are just about to flee when they are confronted by the boys and made prisoners. Edythe rushes up to her sweetheart. He places the box to one side, then folds her in his arms. After the tumult has subsided he quietly removes the lid from the box marked "dynamite" and takes therefrom, the pretty big dolly which he has promised Edythe's little sister. The word "dynamite" he had written upon same while the men were struggling to break down the door.