A motion picture company is about to leave the studio for locations where scenes are to be made. Among the "props" is a placard showing the portrait of a supposedly notorious forger for whom a reward is offered. Both portrait and description apply to the actor who is cast for the role. Another actor in the company is made up as a typical sheriff. These two, the director, a female character, the cameraman and his assistant leave the studio in an auto. Higgins, a rural constable, being paid by the county on the basis of arrests he makes, has found business very dull, and, as the family larder is running low, his wife hounds him to make an arrest of some kind. The picture company passes his home and the placard is blown out of the machine, falls at the feet of the constable. He goes in search of the crook. The company stops a little further on and when one of the "props" is missed a search is instituted. The "heavy" goes back along the road. Meanwhile the constable in his search comes upon the company and, exhibiting the placard to the director, asks if he has seen anything of the crook. The director, seeing the possibilities of a practical joke, puts the constable on the "heavy's" trail and tells him that the actor-sheriff will pay the reward if he captures the crook. The "heavy" returns to the company and the production of the picture is continued. While a scene is in progress the constable returns, and failing to recognize the "heavy" as an actor puts him under arrest. There is consternation among the members of the company and the director finds that he himself has become the victim of his own joke when the constable obstinately refuses to surrender his prisoner until the reward is paid, The director refuses to pay and the constable marches the "heavy" to his home and imprisons him in the cellar, setting his wife to keep guard over him. The director, finding his time short and his need for the missing "heavy" imperative, is finally obliged to pay the reward. The constable turns the prisoner over to the sheriff and he and Mrs. Higgins rejoice over their stroke of good business.
