Their Lives for Gold - Production & Contact Info

Their Lives for Gold (1912)
Short | Short, Drama

Their Lives for Gold (1912)

Short | Short, Drama

Tom Burke and Joe Baker are miners prospecting for gold. In the language of the old-time miner, they are "pards." They are even more; they are firm friends. They discover a miner, who is very ill. They pick him up and carry him to their ...See moreTom Burke and Joe Baker are miners prospecting for gold. In the language of the old-time miner, they are "pards." They are even more; they are firm friends. They discover a miner, who is very ill. They pick him up and carry him to their cabin. The sick man, realizing his time is short, tells the two friends of a rich gold mine. With a last effort he withdraws from an inner pocket a plan or map of the property. The paper is grabbed by Joe, who puts it in his coat. The miner is carried into the cabin ; he has swung his last pick. Tom goes to Joe and remonstrates with him. Joe, who is the younger of the two men, perhaps thirty years old, is surly. He does not care to argue the matter. Tom, forty years old, wiser and cooler than his companion, endeavors to point out to Joe the unfairness of his action. They part in anger. Each miner knows that, according to American law, the first bona fide claimant of an abandoned mine becomes the owner. Tom has seen enough of the contents of the paper in Joe's possession, together with what he learned from the lips of the dying miner, pretty accurately to estimate the location of the claim. He determines to steal a march on Joe by being the first to reach the railroad. Putting a few necessaries into a handbag he quietly slips out of camp. Joe is watching him. As Tom disappears Joe goes to a stable. We see him from the inside as he peers out the nearly closed door. The light shines through between the slatted boards. Joe, as soon as he is satisfied Tom is secure in his feeling of non-discovery, sets out on a big white horse at a fast clip. In the meantime Tom has been able to secure the services of a wagon, and is making fast time for the railroad. He cuts away from the roads and drives through a wide and shallow stream, the horse under the lash. Not far behind him Joe is following, also urging his beast to do his best. Tom jumps from his wagon and rushes for the train, already under way. He loses his bag in his haste, but just manages to crawl up on the rear platform. Coming down the track at full speed is the white horse. His headway is just enough to enable his rider to make a jump for the platform where Tom is standing. Tom had taken two or three shots at Joe as he approached, but had missed. Now he grapples with him, and the two sway back and forth on the lower step. Finally Tom pushes Joe clear off the train, and he falls into the ditch, just a few feet from a telegraph pole. Joe is not to be beaten by any such combination of circumstances as this. He knows the railroad describes a wide curve, in fact, its whole course is on anything but a straight line. He goes back and picks up his horse and sets out across country. He crosses meadow and stream. One picture of him as his horse splashes through the water in the reflected rays of an afternoon sun is most effective. Joe finally reaches the railroad and rides along the rails a short distance until he comes to a signal structure which spans the track. He has no time to spare, and he wastes none. He rapidly climbs the frail latticework, and in a crouching position waits until the last car has nearly passed out from under him. At the psychological second he drops. He falls on the roof of the car, but so finely has he calculated his distance that he brings up against the ventilator, in a heap, to be sure, but experiencing no damage beyond the loss of his hat. Before he has a chance to get from the car on which he landed a figure creeps up between the last two cars. It is in a blouse and a cap, evidently a train hand so imbued with a sense of duty to his employers that he will attempt to eject this tramp from the top of a rapidly moving train. The two grapple in a death struggle. Back and forth they sway, but the train speeds on. Gradually Joe is winning; finally the man is pushed over the side of the car and disappears. Joe climbs along the top of the train to the locomotive. He wastes no precious minutes on the engineer. A pistol shot puts him into the bottom of the cab. Joe reaches down and cuts the engine free from the train. We see the passengers running through to the rear car, all demanding an explanation of the bewildered conductor. Tom is standing apart from the others, watching the receding locomotive. If Joe is a man of action, and quick action, so likewise is Tom. He is not yet beaten. He remembers a settlement not far from the railroad, but a river intervenes. He sets out across swamps and through shallow streams and comes to the river. He locates the ferry, operated by hand by means of a trolley arrangement, and casts it loose. He works with feverish haste, for the goal is not far away, and time is flying. Across the river, Tom locates the settlement, and after some dickering procures a motor car. Into it he puts a great "sleeper" or railroad tie. Again he is speeding away, now over smooth roads and great bridges. At last the road crosses the railroad. Tom drives the car right on to the track. With the iron highway thus effectually blocked, he takes the heavy tie from his car, and places it across the rails. The locomotive is now in sight bearing rapidly down on the motor car. Tom holds the car as long as he dares and then clears the track. The locomotive slows up, but not soon enough. Its front wheels ride up on the great beam, the mass of iron trembles, totters, and then rolls over on the right side of the track. Joe crawls out through the front window, with the blazing coals of the opened furnace showing behind him. He appears to be pretty badly shaken up. Tom is now again in the lead. It is his hour of triumph. Of it he makes the most. We leave him and follow Joe, as he painfully takes his way across country again, this time on foot. He finally reaches the mine and sees Tom at work. He has lost the race. He has not, however, yet lost the fight, for it is not now a question of gold. It is a question of blood. Joe looks about him for means of wreaking his vengeance. In a little building wherein is stored the powder used for blasting, Joe realizes he has his weapon. He forces the window and crawls in. He selects a huge stick. A series of a half dozen heavy explosions quickly follow. In a mass of wreckage Joe is seen. He has fought his last fight. In his eagerness to do a sure job he has taken just one too many chances. He has brought down the structure on his own head. But he has reached his enemy. Tom, dying, sees his former friend lying lifeless in the timbers and crawls to his side. The two "pards" are reunited in death. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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