The police are hunting for an escaped convict (Charlie Chaplin) who has cleverly eluded the guards so far.

He unburies himself very cautiously, however, Bergman is asleep, and he falls back on the hole which Charlie created while un-burying himself.

Charlie hurriedly climbs up a vertical wall of mud and stone, and the officer chases after him.

However, the shot missed its mark, and Charlie, feigning death, fools the officer successfully.

He takes the officer's hiding place (a disguised hole in the rock) while Bergman and his companion come to that same spot looking for Charlie.

Meanwhile, he tiptoes backwards, trips against a stray rock, and accidentally fires at Bergman.

The scene cuts towards a girl and her lover (Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell).

Hearing the chaos ensuing between Campbell, Edna and her mother, Charlie, who had just found some dry land, decides to investigate.

However, him wearing his striped pajamas, and lying in a bed with bars at the head, makes him think he is in prison, which is cleared when the butler enters with a towel.

However, when he does, he sees Charlie's face on the newspaper, under the headline "Criminal Escapes: Convict Still at Large".

However, at the worst possible moment, Campbell barges in, shoves Charlie out and tells Judge Brown to come look at the newspaper.

As a last resort, he takes out his pen and draws a beard, so (hopefully) Judge Brown thinks Campbell is the convict.

When a determined Campbell stalks in with the judge, he grabs the paper and shows it to Brown.

He opens the closet, sees the policeman and, in an instant, closes the door and darts out of the room.

Chaplin broadened the scope of his comedic delivery considerably during his time with Mutual, and this picture is another wherein he made bold choices that departed from the old format of his films.

He continued: "There is very little of the old slapstick, custard pie type of comedy used in this picture, but the comedian has introduced a generous share of sure-fire comedy business, and he still retains his unmatchable ability to plant a swift kick at any and all times where it will do the most good and the least harm.

"[2]In 1932, Amedee Van Beuren of Van Beuren Studios, purchased Chaplin's Mutual comedies for $10,000 each, added music by Gene Rodemich and Winston Sharples and sound effects, and re-released them through RKO Radio Pictures.