Tom Morris, a young cowboy, is in love with Helen Walters, the daughter of an old miner. Jim Watson, the foreman of a ranch, is also in love with Helen, but she prefers Tom, and Jim resolves to get rid of his rival in some way, thereby leaving the coast clear for his own wooing. A band of Indians have been committing depredations in the neighborhood and Jim devises a plan of forming an expedition to exterminate them. He also plans to have Tom accompany them, resolving that he will not return alive. Helen, hearing of the plan to exterminate the Indians, makes Tom promise that he will not accompany the party. When the posse is being formed, Tom is asked to join, but refuses. The men taunt him and accuse him of cowardice. He finally gains Helen’s consent to go, and receives Jim’s sacred promise that he will bring Tom back unharmed. The expedition departs. In a battle with the Indians the little party is nearly exterminated and Tom and Jim are both badly wounded. Jim discovers Tom lying unconscious and determines to kill him. As he is about to raise his gun to commit the deed, a vision comes to him of his promise to Helen, and he decides to prove himself a man. Placing the form of the unconscious Tom on his shoulders, he starts across the desert for home. During a little party, at which Helen is present, she sits thinking of her lover, when suddenly a premonition comes to her that Tom is in great danger. So strongly is it suggested to her that she induces her father and several other friends to accompany her in a search for Tom. They start out on the trail taken by the expedition. In the meantime, Jim has been tramping across the desert with his burden and finally the strain proves too much and he falls exhausted. There is only a little water left and as he is about to drink some of it, the unconscious Tom revives and asks for a drink. Jim hands him the canteen and Tom, in his delirium, drains it. Realizing that they must have water to remain alive, Jim again picks Tom up and starts on his weary tramp. After a short time, he is unable to go further and sinks to’ the ground. Here Helen and the searchers find them. Tom is revived, but Jim’s wounds and his exertions have proved too much for him and he is beyond help. Helen realizes that he has given his life to fulfill the promise he made her, and she presses a kiss upon his lips as he dies in her arms.