Ex-slave Joe Sims has a cheerful demeanor that masks intensive hatred for the white racists who have dogged him all his life. He has an uncanny ability to track down Heyes and Curry wherever they go and trap them, planning to turn them in for the reward money and methodically ignoring their pleas that they have reformed. After witnessing some of Sims' confrontations with vicious whites, Heyes and Curry are sympathetic to his plight and try to help him, but Sims won't let them go.