- Failing to hear from her brother Jimmy after his departure for the Klondike, Barbara Henderson goes in search of him. Arriving in the frozen North, Barbara learns that her brother has been murdered and vows vengeance. Because the town's small hotel is filled to capacity, Barbara accepts an offer of lodging from old Tully Winkle in return for her keeping house for him and his prospecting partner, Cort Dorian. Barbara and Cort fall in love, but Barbara refuses to marry Cort until she solves the mystery of her brother's death. From various sources she learns that Jimmy's disappearance was preceded by a shoot-out between him and prospector Laberge over Seattle Lou. Barbara then makes the acquaintance of Laberge, who tells her that Cort shot Jimmy. Barbara insists upon fighting a duel with Cort, who fires into the air and is wounded by Barbara's bullet. Just as the shots are fired, Tully appears with the news that Seattle Lou has just arrived in town with her new husband, Jimmy Henderson.
- When the Widow Henderson died her son, Jimmie, was left to the care of her daughter, Barbara. He was wild and lazy, so when he decided to try his luck in the Klondike, the girl was better satisfied than to have him at home. But when her letters to him were returned with notice that the boy could not be found, Barbara determined to go to the Klondike and seek her brother. In Seattle she heard that Jimmie had been murdered in Chilkoot. Barbara set out for the Klondike to become her brother's avenger. She applied for lodgings at Basil Petty's at a time when Chilkoot was flooded with transients and the only hotel in the camp was crowded to capacity. Jolly old Tully Winkle offered her shelter in the shack he was using, together with his prospecting partner, Cort Dorian, and the girl accepted the invitation to enter upon a housekeeping arrangement with the two men. Cort Dorian found Barbara congenial, and the girl realized that the prospector had won her heart. From various sources of information among Chilkoot's dance hall, principally from Anne Malone, a denizen of the "honky-tonk," Barbara learned much of her brother's disappearance. "Seattle" Lou, whose "best man" was Laberge, formed an attachment for Jimmie Henderson. Laberge was away most of the time prospecting on Nenana River, and his absence gave Lou opportunity to be in Jimmie's company. On the day that Laberge returned to Chilkoot the boy was ill and Lou was nursing him in his room at Basil Pelly's hotel. Laberge surprised Lou in Jimmie's room, holding the lad's head in her lap. Tully Winkle and Cort Dorian were stopping at Pelly's hotel and heard the shooting that followed Laberge's entrance to Jimmie's room. They rushed to the scene, but found the place in darkness. There were many shots fired, and when the smoke cleared away Laberge had fled and Jimmie Henderson was prostrate and bleeding from bullet wounds, with "Seattle" Lou bending over him. As the key to the story seemed to be in possession of Laberge, Barbara determined that she should learn the details from his own lips. When Laberge came to Chilkoot, Barbara feigned interest in him, and when he was intoxicated, led him to tell the story of Jimmie Henderson's passing. When, in finishing the story, Laberge declared that Cort Dorian, in love with "Seattle" Lou. vented his spite against Jimmie by shooting him. Barbara fled the dance hall and ran to the cabin where she had been keeping house for Cort and Tully Winkle. She challenged Dorian to step forth and defend himself. Her accusations roused Cort's pride to resentment and he was not long in "pacing off the distance." Cort shot straight in the air, while Barbara's bullet gave her antagonist a wound in the shoulder. Just as the shots were fired, Tully Winkle came up and told that "Seattle" Lou had just come to town, and with her was her husband, Jimmie Henderson.
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