The cock-sure deputy sheriff, through circumstantial evidence, places the positive guilt of a certain crime on a man he had previously esteemed a friend. His sworn testimony on the witness stand in the murder trial convicts this man, the foster-father of his sweetheart. The real murderer is a well-known bandit, who in an attempted hold-up kills the man whom at first he merely intended to rob. The deputy is called to another town to identify the man who has been severely wounded, and in him finds the real murdered who, on his death-bed, confesses to the crime. The deputy telegraphs the circumstances, having, as he thinks, ample time to prevent the execution of the law, which has decreed death on an innocent man. As he enters the room, a clock which has been set wrong by a boy who had also the cock-sure instinct that his watch was right and the clock wrong, shows the times as 3:23 and the execution had been set for 3:00. Without stopping to reason, the cock-sure man loses his nerve as he realizes he alone is responsible for the death of his former friend. He goes absolutely mad and rushes to the mountains. Meanwhile, the governor has received the wire in time to release the prisoner, who is returned safely to his home. The deputy wanders near his home town and even attempts to kill the girl he loves, but fortunately his reason is restored by the appearance of the man he had been instrumental in condemning and the girl he had always loved again comes into his life.