Novel
Don Counsel, a New Yorker who is traveling through southern Florida, is being framed by Ernest Riever for a murder he did not commit. Riever is holding the real killer captive on his yacht while detectives are searching for Counsel. Pen Broome, who lives with her father (Henry James) on their rundown estate, tries to help Counsel out. Riever's men find Counsel and trap him in a ballast bulkhead, but Pen rescues him.
Novel
Bela, reared by Indians, learns that she is a white orphan and runs away from the Indian village to avoid marrying a brave from the tribe. She determines to marry land prospector Sam Gladding, who resists her advances but later falls in love with Bela when an Indian sage gives him some advice.
Story
Jack Norman is an office clerk who falls in love with co-worker Kate Blair, a stenographer. He gets fired from his job but before this can really sink in, he suddenly inherits 80 million dollars from a financier who once loved his mother. The financier, Glyde, was murdered, so Norman also inherits a load of troubles involving the blackmailers who want to killed him. In his attempt to outwit them, Norman poses as a valet, and has a friend impersonate him.
