The Child of the West

• 1916
• Other, Action & Adventure

Nora, or the tomboy, as she is called, lives alone with her dissolute and drunken father in an old tumbled down shanty. Father is killed in a fight by Jim Lopez and afterward when Lopez attempts to make love to the Tomboy she threatens to kill him. She meets Tom Avery, a well-groomed, wealthy college man, who is the silent owner of Bar Z Ranch, and Tom becomes interested in her. She applies for a job cowpunching after her father's death and after argument gets it, and proves herself as good if not better than the men. Meanwhile Mrs. Byrne Grahame, a wealthy society woman living with her daughter, Lillian, and son, Harry, traces her brother (Nora's father) and Nora to Red Gulch and sends the attorney for them. Nora wanders out one night and encounters Lopez, he makes violent love to her, and the girl, furious, takes out her gun and shoots him, thinking she has killed him. Tom coming on the scene takes her home and goes back to look for Lopez. Morson, the attorney, arrives meanwhile and Nora goes away with him, leaving only a note for Tom. She fully believes she has murdered Lopez. Two years elapse and Nora returns to her aunt's house, a polished young woman. Harry falls in love with her but on the evening Nora is presented at the ball, she meets Tom, who is Lillian's fiancé. They fall in love again but it is Nora who says they must break it off because of Lillian. A few weeks elapse and one day at the country club, Nora in her polo togs, sees Tom again. A wild horse, a mankiller, is brought out and Nora decides to ride it. Tom, in anguish, forbids her to ride it, confessing publicly his love for her. Lillian overhears it and is furious. Nora, however, catching Lillian's look, brings the whip down on the horse and it seemingly runs away. Tom, of course, as Nora expected, pursues her. At a safe distance she slides off the horse and when Tom comes up, he finds her lying face down and thinks she is dead. As he flings himself down beside her, she starts laughing and explains her ruse. He gathers her in his arms and they hide behind a tree trunk, like two mischievous children while Lillian and Harry go past them. Of course, happy ending clinch, etc.