Taking a Chance

A 15-chapter Western serial. The serial involves the mystery of the murder of William Stillman (Wells) and the finding of the heir to his fortune. Silent Joe (Farnum) arrives in an effort to discover the murderer and prove that he is the true heir. He and the heroine Lou (Anderson) have their adventures in the mountainous terrain with its "vanishing trails." They are aided by The Shadow (Orlamond), a demented scientist with his trained dog, and several remarkable, death-dealing inventions.

Rival telephone crews are in a race to be the first to connect telephone service between Rawlings and Cheynne, Wyoming. Lineman Tom Remington's girlfriend is the daughter of one crew foreman, who wants to win the race in order to re-establish himself in the business. However, the foreman of the other crew has his own scheme to win the race, and will stop at nothing--including kidnapping--to accomplish it.

Disregarding the sanctity of "Song Bird's" feelings, John Strong, a young surveyor in the pioneer forests of the west, makes love to the Indian maiden whenever he chances to meet her, until she longs and looks for his coming and going, and finds that he has made himself part of her life.

The tenderfoot came into camp with his ill-gotten money intending to purchase a claim. The faker salted a claim, hoping thereby to secure the money. But the gambler got ahead of him through cheating at cards. Later the tenderfoot sought to regain his money and in the struggle it fell into worthier hands.

Big Ben from the Bar N Ranch called often on Margaret. As the two were inseparable, it soon became known that they would soon marry. This news greatly displeased Bill Higgins, who promptly set about to make trouble. He wrote an anonymous note and attached it to Ben's saddle, saying " She don't love you. She was with Bill Higgins all day yesterday. A Friend." When Ben found it he frowned and tucked it idly into his pocket. This happened regularly thereafter. If Ben had been a trifle older he might have smiled derisively, but he didn't. Youth and jealousy are old acquaintances and so Ben made his visits shorter and shorter. One day, lonesomeness overcame him and he sent the notes in a bundle to Margy. She read them and promptly burst into tears.

Henry Martin receives a letter from Buck Lessen, a convict about to be released from prison, telling him that his time is up and he is going to get him for sending him to prison and marrying his sweetheart, Jane. The Martins and their young daughter move away but Buck learns where they went. Buck is hiding on the porch, planning to ambush Henry when he comes out. Two drunken cowboys ride by firing their pistols. When Henry comes outside he sees Buck's body lying in the grass, shot to death by a stray bullet.

Three Outlaws came across a stranded baby and must decide to save the child or escape from the law.

Set in the Northwoods of Canada, Tom Mix stars as Donald MacTavish, the newly appointed head commissioner of the Hudson's Bay Company. This promotion infuriates MacTavish's rival Angus Fitzpatrick (Frank Clark) who wanted the job. Angus Fitzpatrick takes his anger and resentment out on MacTavish then sets out to get MacTavish fired.

The new foreman falls in love with the ranchman's daughter, and notes with jealousy her joy over a letter which her father receives.

Cattlemen attempt to keep their lands and herds from being overrun by nesters.

Dismissed from the church because of his seemingly undue intimacy with the schoolteacher, the young minister becomes an evangelist and, after an incident in which he thrashes the drunken sheriff, is appointed sheriff by the mayor. In the girl's home he sees a picture of her father, whom he recognizes as identical with that on a circular calling for the arrest of Idaho Mac, a notorious desperado. He promises the girl that he will never use his gun against her father, but sends his deputy, the ex-sheriff, to apprehend Idaho Mac at the border. The bandit, badly wounded by the deputy's bullets, reaches his daughter's house, and she thinks the sheriff false to his word.

Out of the talk at the Sportsmen's Club arises a wager between the globe-trotter and his friend, who bets that he will not be able, within a fixed time, to find his way out of an isolated mountain location to which he will lead him.

Two road agents hold up the stagecoach and rob the passengers. In making their getaway, one of the road agents is shot by the stage driver. They stop at a lonely cabin, where a miner's widow lives with her little daughter, and ask for aid.

With a price upon his head. Texas Pete takes to the open country.

The hero's mother is desperately ill and the young fellow, while going afoot for a doctor, stops a mail carrier and forces him- at the point of the pistol- to give up his horse.

The life of Sam Houston, soldier, statesman, patriot and one of the founders of the Republic of Texas, is depicted.

Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town's saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road's paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company's mine.

A boy's father is an unjustly accused fugitive, and the boy's scheming uncle plots to become the youngster's guardian and take over the family fortune.

The only key to a young woman's fortune lies in a marking on the leg of a horse called The Ghost of the Gauchos. But the woman's guardian, her uncle, plots to steal her wealth.

Bruce McLeod returns from the goldfields to find that his wife has left home with another man, taking their child. After the death of the mother, the child is adopted by Cherie, a local dancehall girl ostracized by the community. Cullum, a gambler who earlier seduced Mrs. McLeod, drifts into the town, and failing to win Cherie, he swears vengeance. McLeod, seeking the man who wrecked his home, falls in love with Cherie but scorns her when he discovers that she is a dancer. Ultimately, the child identifies Cullum as the gambler who lured Mrs. McLeod from her home. In the ensuing fight, Cullum is shot by a halfbreed, and Bruce is happily united with Cherie.