Two small boys lay in a stock of half-dime novels and proceed to an old mill to read them. They amuse themselves by writing a note in imitation of one in the book and this they place in a niche in the wall to be later discovered when their play reproduces the scenes of their reading. Two tramps discover the hiding place and take the letter to be the note of some thief to his pals and then start out to locate the hidden loot to which the note makes reference. The directions are vague but the tramps are persistent and they are not disheartened by a few disappointments. They continue their search for the cellar to which the note refers and tumble into the basement of a building which houses a physical culture school. The janitor sees them enter through the window and with a policeman gives chase, but the tramps hear them coming and hide themselves in barrels whence they emerge when the pursuit has passed to the far end of the cellar. They are stealing up the stairs when they are rediscovered and a chase ensues in which the tramps penetrate the class room of the physical culturist where a number of young women are enhancing their graces with Delsarte movements. Here their pursuers find them and they are taken off to jail still in darkness as to the whereabouts of the treasure and still convinced that they could have found the hidden loot had they been left alone.