C. Thomas Howell is a habberdasher and phrenologist; a city boy who leaps at whatever the latest big-city fad is. He hires a new assistant, who has just witnessed an outlaw being bucked off his horse into quicksand and could not save him, only the Dead Man's Gun, which he carried. The Phrenologist uses the boy to try to win the heart of a beautiful young lady, whose affections he is competing for with a local rancher. She is having great difficulty choosing between them. Meanwhile, the outlaws bank-robbing partners are hot on his (and the stolen money's) trail, and, after being placed under arrest, notice the Phrenologist carrying their old partner's gun. The boy overhears their discussion, and leads the Phrenologist to the swamp where the money must be, while the outlaws escape. They take the phrenologist and the rancher hostage, but are saved by the clever boy, who turns out to be Thomas Edison; the woman uses trickery to discover which man she should give her hand to.