A railroad "dick," as they once were called, arrests a man for "hoboing" in a freight yard. The constable handcuffs the man to a grab-iron on a box car while he goes to call for a sheriff’s patrol car for prisoner transportation to the county jail. Grab-irons are the vertical iron bars on the side of freight cars that flagmen use to get on and get off moving trains.

The train’s engineer is unaware that the suspect is securely cuffed to his train as he begins switching cars—back and forth—parking freight cars on sidings.

During the switching process, trains move slowly—only a few miles-per-hour. But it’s aggravating, to say nothing about dangerous, to run alongside a moving train only a few feet from wheels grinding against steel track.

When the railroad dick returns, his prisoner is gone! For that matter, the whole train is gone. Frantic, the officer looks around the freight yard until he spots slow-moving box cars a couple of hundred yards away.

There, dancing alongside the moving train, is the prisoner, wrists firmly attached to a grab-iron. The hobo is yelling for help as loud as he can, but who can hear his cries amid the thunder of a rolling train?

The railroad dick finally catches up with his prisoner and helps him climb up on the grab-iron ladder. There the cop unlocks the cuffs and both men jump safely clear of the moving freight train.

The bum, relieved to no longer be tethered to a moving train, is almost grateful to be escorted across the tracks and into the arms of a waiting deputy sheriff.