A Man Afraid

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Ted Barham, 11 years old, is injured while playing in a barn. A blow on the head when he falls from a trapeze stuns him and deranges certain nerve centers which make him a coward. As a man he is engaged to Austen Martin. Bayard Schnell, his rival, discovers this weakness of Ted's and induces the girl to break her engagement from "a coward." He is struck by a baseball and his mental faculties return. He feels true courage coursing through his nervous system. He saves an old man from being struck by an auto. Austen wants him to renew the engagement on learning of this, but he declares he will not until he has premeditatedly performed some test of nerve. He enters an auto race. Schnell gives Ted's mechanic $500 to become ill during the race and thus incapacitate Ted. The plans work out and Ted vainly tries to locate a mechanic. Austen agrees to take the job and they are off. He is struck by a stone on the head and again experiences the crippling fear but fights it and wins the race. Schnell's treachery is discovered and Austen again takes Ted's ring.