The police are on the lookout for Jim Spike, alias Jim Nail, a dangerous highway robber, who has been working with more or less success without being apprehended. The chief of the detective bureau puts two new detectives on the case and enjoins them to be very careful in their investigations, and not to come back without landing the prisoner. The three detectives soon come upon Edgar Carroll, in whom they immediately see a striking resemblance to Spike, the crook. They shadow Edgar from place to place, and soon his life becomes one long game of hide and seek with the detectives. Finally Edgar consults his friend and they both decide to give the detectives a merry chase. Edgar and his friend dress as women and parade the streets in their ludicrous feminine attire. They flirt with the detectives and entice them away from their duty. They do not discover the real identity of their charming feminine companions until they accidentally come upon them one evening and see them leisurely, and with enjoyment, smoking clear Havana cigars. This shocking and unfeminine spectacle arouses their suspicions, but the boys are too clever for these cousins of Sherlock Holmes and, with the aid of an automobile, give them the slip, but the detectives eventually turn up again and arrest the masqueraders. However, they do not remain long in the police station, for the real Jim Spike turns up soon as the crook who tried to snatch Jane Ellery’s purse on the ferryboat. Jane is Edgar Carroll’s sweetheart, and she recognizes him. A few more complications arise, however, until Edgar and the crook are seen side by side and their likeness discovered, and the cousins of Sherlock Holmes see they have been misguided in their investigations.