At the beginning of the Civil War, as federal troops start to build the first overland telegraph, Indians, who fear the wires, kill some of the linesmen. In response, Major Hammond, who oversees the troops, requests that President Abraham Lincoln send twenty thousand more soldiers to come to his aid. Lincoln grants Hammond's request, and sends along Capt. Allen, who is knowledgeable about Indians. At his new post, Allen discovers that a Confederate spy has been fomenting trouble with the Indians. Allen eventually uncovers the spy, makes peace with the Indians and wins the love of Dorothy, a young woman who lives at the post.
American mining engineer Jim McClellan is in love with Dolores de Silva, daughter of the deposed president of a Latin American country. He becomes involved in the revolution....
Cock Robin is the swaggering ballyhoo man of a Hungarian sideshow known as the Palace of Illusions. The highlight of the show is a reenactment of Salome's dance of the seven veils, replete with the beheading of Jokanaan. The performer portraying Salome is in love with Cock Robin. Jealous, sinister The Greek is determined to eliminate that competition.
Rafael Sabatini's story of the swashbuckling era and of Bardeleys, the handsome courtier who could win any woman he set his mind to...and was not above boasting about it to all who would listen.
