The Outer Gate

Bob Terry is considered to be one of the brightest young men at the Berkeley Metal Company by his boss, John Borden, whose daughter Lois is enamored of Bob. When the company's cashier embezzles $5,000, Bob is found guilty based on Borden's testimony that Bob had been entrusted with the money. Bob is sentenced to fifteen years in prison. After Bob spends five years of hard labor on a chain gang, the cashier commits suicide and leaves a confession clearing Bob. Now very bitter, Bob vows to his cellmate, Todd Shannon, to make Borden pay for his ruined life. Todd, who stands to be paroled soon, encourages Bob to accept Borden's offer to live in his home so that he can exact retribution more easily. When Bob arrives at the Borden home, Lois is troubled by Bob's bitterness. Borden, who feels responsible, gives Bob the combination to his safe and, after showing him the switch to remove the electric cell arrangement that protects the safe, tells Bob to help himself to money for clothes. Bob refuses Borden's offer of his old job and, after being rejected at many job interviews because of his past, accepts a job as a waiter at a club run by the gangster Carmody, a colleague of Todd's. When the board of directors at Borden's company entrusts a quarter of a million dollars in negotiable bonds to Borden and he waits too long to put them into the bank that day, he takes them home to his safe. Bob gives the safe combination, a key to the house and instructions on how to turn off the electric cell to Carmody. After the bonds are stolen, Borden, realizing that he will be indicted for embezzlement, accepts his fate as a squaring of accounts with Bob. When Borden is convicted, Lois, who knows that Bob was involved, confronts Bob and confesses that she cried and prayed every night for his freedom. After she warns him that he will now always be imprisoned by his own bitterness and hatred, Bob walks away unmoved. However, Todd is convinced that Lois is right, and he retrieves the bonds, but he is shot by Lefty, one of Carmody's mob. Before he dies, Todd gives the bonds to Bob. Lefty and Carmody are captured after a fight, and Bob speeds with the police to the courtroom, where Borden is about to be sentenced. Borden is exonerated, and later, Bob and Lois walk through a gate which he helps her close. She asks him if he doesn't think that the view is lovely, and admiring her, he agrees, before they embrace and kiss.