“No-Account” Smith is a shiftless miner, too lazy to work his mine. While he is spending most of his time in the saloons, his wife, Lucy, struggles along in poverty. A baby girl comes to brighten her life and for a time Smith’s affections for the infant make him fairly industrious. Finding a nugget he buys a pair of shoes for the baby’s Christmas. For a time he resolves to let drink alone, but his good resolutions fail and two years later he is a worthless drunkard. He hears the miners talking one day of the arrival of the stagecoach with a considerable sum of gold. He determines to hold up the stage and his wife, learning of his intentions, wraps the baby’s first shoes in the mask which he has made for himself. When he goes to hold up the stage, as he takes the mask from his pocket the baby’s shoes fall out and a strong revulsion of feeling comes over him. He tears the mask into shreds and a little later overtakes the stage, which has broken down. In the stage Smith finds a man who had previously written to his wife about purchasing the mine and invites him home for the night. Ross, the prospective purchaser, buys Smith’s mine and Smith, thankful over his failure to rob the stage, resolves to lead a better life.