Tom Young is sent on the trail of a gang of counterfeiters. He knows that a man named Miller is the leader of the criminals, but Miller makes no move which will implicate himself or accomplices. Miller has a clever scheme through which he keeps in touch with his gang. He writes a note on thin tissue paper and places it in his hat band. At a lunch room, which he visits every day, he exchanges hats with a confederate without communicating with the latter. It happens that Tom’s sweetheart, Alice, is cashier at the restaurant and notices the peculiar exchange of hats. She informs Tom of the affair when he drops in to see her. One day the young detective follows Miller after the leader has received a message, but the crook swallows the little paper. Not to be discouraged; Tom hits upon a plan. With the assistance of the restaurant proprietor he cuts out a small portion of the wall, near the rack on which the hats are always hung. While Miller and the accomplice are lunching Tom extracts the message in the hat and puts in its place a decoy note which demands the presence of Miller at the gang’s headquarters. The leader is trailed to the rendezvous and the whole band of criminals is apprehended.