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- DirectorGeorge LesseyStarsBen F. WilsonCora WilliamsEdward EarleThe Arbuthnot family was shrouded in mystery and fear. Kate Arbuthnot and her brothers, Jack, Geoffrey, Harold and Eric, who had been left their father's entire fortune, had lately been joined by their nearest living relative, Eugene Brand, who had just returned from Mexico. Shortly after his arrival, Geoffrey Arbuthnot fell a victim to a strange malady, marked by paroxysmal bursts of hideous laughter. Death resulted in a few hours after his first uncanny laugh. A little later, Harold, the second brother, died under the same conditions. The doctor was utterly at a loss. The symptoms clearly corresponded with certain types of poisoning, but it was impossible to even hazard a guess as to the exact cause. Everybody in the unhappy home became a prey to silent suspicion. No one was entirely free. Kate, her fiancé, the remaining two brothers and Brand would all profit by the deaths. In default of other means, Kate, her fiancé, Jack and Brand, visited Cleek separately and engaged him. On the very evening of Cleek's arrival, Eric, the youngest brother, died from the same terrible disease. Cleek viewed the body, noticed the convulsed face, and looked about the room. His attention finally centered on a hideous Mexican idol. On inquiry, he learned that it had been brought into the house by Brand, and on Kate's request, placed it in her brothers' room. A slender filmy thread projected from the idol's mouth. Cleek seized the ugly thing with both hands and smashed it on the floor. A hideous shape crawled out from the ruined bits of pottery, a tremendous tarantula. The mystery was solved. Both Brand and Kate had been the innocent causes of the terrible Laughing Death.
- DirectorBen F. WilsonStarsBen F. WilsonGertrude McCoyRobert BrowerCompletely wrapped up in his wedding preparations, Cleek had allowed everything else to escape from his mind and had not even noted the news from Mauravania announcing the King's death. In the very midst of this the Apaches decided to deal one lasting blow at their natural enemy, and having bribed the chauffeur to drive through a lonely road, they succeeded in abducting Miss Lorne as she was on her way to the city to make some final purchases before her wedding. The guests were assembling for the ceremony when Sir Horace Wyvern burst upon them, announcing that his niece had failed to return from the city. Convinced that his old enemies were at the bottom of it, Cleek started immediately on the trail and traced the abductors to a deserted house. After confirming his suspicions, he telephoned to Superintendent Narkom, who quickly arrived on the scene with a force of detectives. Miss Lorne was rescued and the entire band of Apaches were captured and thrown into prison. Cleek returned to the house with his fiancée, and just as the ceremony was finished, amid the congratulations of their friends, the Royal Councilor of the Court of Mauravania was announced. To the astonishment of the assembled guests, he proclaimed Cleek heir to the throne of Mauravania and urged him to return and accept the gift of a grateful people. Cleek came to a quick decision, informing the Royal Councilor that his Kingdom was in England, and that his newly-sworn allegiance to the queen of his heart would prevent him from taking advantage of the magnificent offer.
- DirectorGeorge LesseyStarsBen F. WilsonRobert BrowerHarry BeaumontScarlett, personal representative of great diamond merchant Bertrucci, called on Police Superintendent Narkom, and begged for his help. He had to carry a small consignment of peculiarly valuable diamonds to a distant city. Narkom disguised Scarlett in a great beard and green goggles and arranged that he should meet two detectives and travel with them on the train that afternoon. Then Scarlett, still very nervous, went to call on his fiancée. When the train left that afternoon the diamonds were carefully hidden in the sole of the disguised man's boot. Narkom and the manager came down to see them off. At just this time, Cleek, the great private detective, strolling through the park with his assistant Dollops, came upon the unconscious body of a man. While his companion was sending for an ambulance, Cleek closely examined a little piece of false beard which was sticking to the man's face. At the superintendent's office Narkom informed Cleek of the steps which had been taken to insure the safety of the diamond merchant. Despite all the precautions, they had been outwitted. Shortly after leaving a station, one of the detectives had looked up from the card game he had been playing and had discovered that the man in disguise had been stabbed to the heart, and that the door of the compartment was unlocked. Cleek immediately rushed down to the scene, and, remembering his experience of the morning, soon succeeded in solving the mystery and arresting the guilty party. It is enough of a suggestion of the interesting features of this story to say that Scarlett was not stabbed at all, and that the man who stabbed the disguised man in the train was apparently the guard on the train. We leave it to Cleek's clever head to show you to what result the connection between these things led.