A poker game in Granite Falls ends in violence. After playing for several hours, local dentist S. Wintner notices that his two kings have lost to two aces held by St. Paul card sharp William Lenard, the "Irish Lord," eight times in succession. Wintner produces a revolver and, when Lenard proclaims his innocence, fatally shoots him. At the trial later that year Frank Nye, for the defense, makes the creative assertion that, gambling being a felony, Dr. Wintner had the right to stop such an act, with violence if necessary. The jury, perhaps unsympathetic to a crooked gambler, finds Wintner not guilty.