Justice Takes a Holiday

After the head of a company embezzles all his firm's funds and skips town, John Logan, the company's safe expert, not only loses his job, but his money also, as he had invested it all with the company. He worries because his wife Margaret is pregnant. Margaret is visited by Judge Martin Walker, who has been in love with her since before she knew Logan, and he offers her financial aid for hospital and medical expenses, but she turns him down. To get money for Margaret, Logan joins a criminal to rob a safe in a home. During the robbery, the owner comes downstairs with a gun, and he is shot and killed by Logan's partner. Logan is wounded, and when he comes to, he finds that he is being accused of murder, as his partner in crime put the murder weapon in his hand before he escaped. Scoop Jones, a police reporter who also writes copy for Judge Walker before elections, learns about the tragedy and suggests to the judge that as a publicity stunt, he offer to pay for Margaret's maternity bills. Walker is interested in the idea, but for other reasons, and desiring no publicity, he pays off Jones double his salary and a trip to Europe to keep quiet. Margaret dies after giving birth to a daughter, and Walker sentences Logan to twenty years in prison. Calling the sentence lenient, Walker tells Logan that he would like to adopt his daughter. When Logan protests, Walker reveals that he once loved Margaret and explains that he wants to raise Margaret's daughter as a tribute to her. Walker convinces Logan that the offer is his daughter's only chance to avoid the stigma of his crime, which would ruin her life. Eighteen years later, Logan is inexplicably denied parole even though he is a model prisoner. At the Walker home, Logan's daughter, who is also named Margaret, celebrates her eighteenth birthday with her sweetheart, Larry Harrison, and Larry's father David, formerly the public defender who took Logan's case. Margaret believes that her real parents are both dead. When David, who is a candidate for governor, vows that if elected, he will grant an executive pardon to Logan, whom he believes is innocent, Walker pleads with him to reconsider, because he does not want to lose Margaret, and admits that he has pulled strings to keep Logan from being paroled. After news of Margaret's engagement to Larry is leaked to the newspapers, Jones, who has not seen Walker since his trip to Europe, visits and relates an idea he has to have Walker called out of retirement to fill a vacancy on the State Supreme Court. Jones again wants to create publicity for the judge by having David, now the governor, pardon Logan, whereupon the judge would invite Logan to his daughter's wedding. Walker, in anger, accuses Jones of trying to blackmail him, whereupon Jones castigates Walker for his scheme to keep Margaret. Jones reveals that he recently went to the prison on an assignment and that Logan asked him to speak on his behalf to Walker. Walker offers Jones another trip to Europe, but Jones refuses in anger. After Jones tells Logan that Walker has kept him from getting paroled, his cellmate Monte talks him into making a break. Monte is shot and killed, but Logan reaches the judge's house. After seeing that Margaret loves Walker very much, Logan reveals to Walker that he came to kill him, but that Margaret's display of affection for Walker saved his life. Logan leaves to return to prison a happy man, proud of his daughter and relieved that she is happy.