The Valley of Lost Hope

Ewing, a get-rich-quick capitalist, salts the quartz of a distant western valley and thus starts a gold rush to the supposedly rich mining field. He remains on the field until he has sold as much land as he dare to the over-eager prospectors and returns to the city, leaving his son, Bob, in charge at the valley to lend an appearance of good-will on the part of the schemers. Bob, a young fellow not long out of college, has not given serious thought to the father's scheme, but with the daily evidence of disappointment on the part of the unsuspecting prospectors, the lad's conscience awakens. Bob's aversion to the scheme is made stronger by his growing intimacy with Dora, pretty young sister of Royce, an evangelist. Dora has come to the camp in order to seek Royce's protection to shield her from her scapegrace husband, Flint, a drunkard. Bob lives in the hut adjoining Royce and Dora. He pleads for her hand in marriage, but Dora, concealing the unhappy secret of her married life, can only answer in the negative. Flint traces Dora to the camp and arrives with demands for money, threatening to reveal himself to Bob if she refuses. Royce ejects him bodily from his cabin. Infuriated, Flint slinks from the settlement. His rage now is also directed against the miners, who have divined his real character and have stoned him from the valley. Royce wants to invest his savings in a mining claim. Bob in refusing to sell him a claim is compelled to confess his father's deception. He squares himself with the evangelist by promising to return to the miners every cent of the money they have invested in claims. On the same night, Flint strikes up an acquaintanceship with Kelly and Sanders, highwaymen, who are planning to rob the well-filled safe of the camp's saloon and gambling hall. The three men go to the crest of the precipice on the following day to plan the burglary. As they gaze down at the populous camp nestling at the foot of the cliff, they see the entire population making for the private train of Ewing, which has just been parked on a railway siding. The angry men have just discovered Ewing's dishonesty, and, not knowing Bob's good intention to return to them their money, they have gone to inflict bodily revenge on the dishonest promoter. The highwaymen see that this is an opportune moment to perform the robbery. They leave Flint at the top of the cliff with instructions to fire three times when he sees the crowd of men start back to the village. While the infuriated mob storms Ewing's private car, Kelly and Sanders overcome the sole occupant left in the gambling hall and proceed to blow the safe. Bob, meanwhile, tights his way through the mob surrounding the car, carrying with him the money invested by the prospectors, and determined to force his father to make restitution. Ewing, awed by the anger of the crowd and cornered by his determined son, tells the mob he will pay them hack, dollar for dollar. At the same time one of the three colleagues accompanying Ewing, instructs the engineer to depart. The special speeds away, followed by hundreds of the miners on horseback. The engineer, traveling on the hastily arranged schedule, is surprised by a freight train coming in an opposite direction. The horsemen draw rein, horrified at the sight of the impending catastrophe. The trains come together in a head-on collision, leaving only a snarl of wreckage. While the prospectors hurry to the scene of the wreck and extract the, dead and injured bodies of the promoters from the debris, a messenger from camp informs them of the robbery. The entire male populace pursue and finally kill Kelly and Sanders. Flint has sought refuge in Dora's cabin, after carrying out a fiendishly conceived plan to ignite a fuse leading to the powder pit at the top of the cliff, knowing the resultant explosion will tear away the top of the mountain and topple it down upon the settlement. Dora runs frantically from cabin to cabin warning the inhabitants of the explosion, while the evangelist, Royce, struggles with Flint in the cellar of his cabin. Just as Dora pulls the last of the women left in the camp to a place of safety the explosion occurs. The entire top of the cliff hurtles through space, causing a gigantic landslide and crushing the cabins below as if they were so many egg shells. Royce has just killed Flint in the cellar, but, unable to escape the landslide, remains imprisoned beneath the debris. Villagers finally rescue him. Bob's father is dead, but he finds solace in the thought that he can return all of the prospectors the money invested in the useless land. Dora has agreed to wed Bob, now that her husband is dead, and they leave the camp for the city, content in the thought that justice has been administered. Bob takes with him "Granny" Dean, an aged widow of the camp, determined to "adopt" her as his mother.