Movie Serials or Chapter Plays
includes a few TV serials in the style of classic cliffhanger theatricals as well as some retro-serials
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- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsPierre BressolWith a US pulp magazine hero and episodes improvised outdoors in Paris's suburbs, Eclair director Jasset began the crime series cycle.The export success of the installments would bring the main star letters from admirers around the world.
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsPierre BressolNick Carter, King of Detectives: Episode 3
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsPierre BressolNick Carter, King of Detectives: Episode 4
- DirectorViggo LarsenStarsOtto DetlefsenHolger-MadsenViggo LarsenSherlock Holmes I
- DirectorViggo LarsenStarsViggo LarsenHolger-MadsenRaffles is serving his time. He manages to send a word to his friends and they help him to escape. Once free, Raffles' first thought is to revenge himself on Sherlock Holmes, and for this he enlists the services of a pretty but depraved girl, to decoy the great detective to an old house, where he is met by Raffles under the disguise of an old woman. Sherlock Holmes, taken by surprise, is thrown through a masked opening in the wall, into an old sewer. When Raffles and his associates discover that Sherlock Holmes has been rescued, they plan a second attempt on his life. Raffles takes lodgings opposite the detective's home and watches for a good chance to fire his gun at Sherlock Holmes. Young Billy, the alert office boy, discovers the strange new tenant and notifies his master. Sherlock Holmes, guessing the intentions of the criminal, pulls down the window blinds and arranges a dummy at the window. At a given moment, Billy pulls up the blinds and Raffles, who had been watching for a good opportunity, takes up his gun and shoots. He hits the dummy, but great is his surprise when leaving the window, to find himself face to face with Sherlock Holmes in flesh. As Raffles turns to run away, he is caught by two officers.
- DirectorViggo LarsenStarsAugust BlomViggo LarsenGustav Lund
- DirectorViggo LarsenStarsHolger-MadsenViggo LarsenGustav Lund
- DirectorJ. Stuart BlacktonStarsPat HartiganJulia ArthurWilliam HumphreyThe persecution of the children of Israel by the Egyptians. Now there arose up a new king in Egypt. And he said unto his people. Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Let us set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. (Exodus, chapter I.) The first scenes show the Egyptian court and King Pharaoh commanding the slave drivers to beat the Hebrew toilers who show signs of rebellion. Pharaoh notices this and, calling his scribes, orders that a decree be published that every man-child born to the Hebrews be killed. The parchment is prepared and is read in Pharaohs court in the presence of Pharaohs daughter, who hears and pleads in vain for his clemency. Pharaohs Decree: Every male child that is born to the Hebrews shall be cast into the river. The Egyptians ruthlessly proceed to carry out the decree and seize the male children from the arms of the Hebrew mothers. Here we are shown the interior of a Hebrew dwelling. The child Moses is in a cradle and his mother is bending over him, utterly unconscious of the cruel edict of King Pharaoh. The sister of Moses is shown attending to household duties and she takes a pitcher and goes to the well to draw water. There she learns of the slaughter of the innocents and hastens back and tells the mother of the cruel scenes she has witnessed. They decide to hide the child Moses by the river, and the cradle or ark is covered and carried between them to a marsh, where they plaster the outside with soft mud to keep out the water, and placing the child therein, his sister remains nearby to watch what will become of him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the rivers edge; and when she saw the ark among the flags she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it she saw the child; and, behold, the babe wept, and she had compassion on him. Pharaohs daughter fondles and pets the crying child and decides that she will keep him for her own. The sister of Moses approaches and suggests that she call a nurse of the Hebrew women and she, of course, called the childs mother. And Pharaohs daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. Pharaoh is informed of his daughters caprice and demands to see the child. He orders it away, but his daughter embraces him and pleads so hard for the life of the child that he consents and gives it his protection and blessing. A fitting ending is a picture of the mother and sister of Moses again fondling their own and giving thanks to God for their unexpected good fortune. The first reel of this series ended with the child Moses being adopted by Pharaohs daughter. The Hebrews are still under bondage, and we see them laboring in the brick fields, beaten by the taskmasters, as they build those gigantic specimens of Egyptian architecture, many of which stand to this day. Moses has been reared and educated in the Egyptian court, and is now in the prime of life, but he does not forget that he is of Hebrew blood, and, as he watches his brethren in their slavery, his blood boils at the outrages and he looks toward Heaven and cries, How long, oh Lord, how long? A number of Hebrews are digging clay, which is filled into baskets. The load is too heavy for one of the laborers, and the taskmaster beats him unmercifully. Moses sees this and kills the taskmaster. T The other Hebrew slaves, horrified at the enormity of the act, run away, and Moses, afraid of the consequences, hastily buries the body in the clay pit. Two days after this, Moses seeks to separate two of his brethren who are quarreling, and one of them says: Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian? Moses is terrified when he knows that his crime is known, and decides to flee from the country. He seeks refuge in the home of a Hebrew laborer and bargains for a suit of the laborers garments, with which he disguises himself; he also purchases provisions and a water bottle, and departs. Moses is seen crossing the desert. Tired and dusty, he rests and drinks from his water flask. Still toiling on through the arid desert, he reaches an eminence and looks hack to see if he is being followed, and, seeing no one, he gives thanks for his deliverance. Moses has at last reached the land of Midian. He discovers a well and refreshes and rests himself. While he is resting seven daughters of Jethro, a Midianite, come to the well to draw water for their sheep and cattle. Other herdsmen also come to the well and ungallantly drive away the maidens, but Moses comes to their aid, and draws the water for them. The home of Jethro, the priest of Midian, father of the seven maidens. They enter and tell of the encounter at the well, and how they were aided by a Hebrew traveler. He says the man must be his guest, and hastens to the well and greets Moses and invites him to the shelter of his house, which offer is accepted. Moses enters the home of the priest of Midian, where he is effusively greeted by the whole household, and we see him seated and enjoying a meal with the family. (And Moses was content to dwell with the manand he gave Moses his daughter, Zipporah, to wife.) (Forty years later). Moses is now a shepherd, and, while tending his flocks in the land of Midian. The voice of God speaks to him out of a burning bush and commands him to return to Egypt and deliver his brethren out of the bondage of the Egyptians. Moses bids farewell to Jethro, his father-in-law, and, with his family, journeys to Egypt. On the way he meets Aaron, who had been, commanded by the Lord to meet Moses, and together they arrive at the Egyptian court. The court of Pharaoh, a young man, the elder Pharaoh having died while Moses was in Midian. The officials announce the new arrivals, and Moses and Aaron are ushered in and demand, in the name of the Lord, that the Children of Israel be set free. The Egyptian king refuses, and Moses tells him that if he does not consent the wrath of God will come on all the Egyptians. Moses prays to the Lord for advice, and is commanded to work a miracle before the Egyptian monarch to convince him that it is the Lord, the God of the Israelites, who demands the deliverance of His people. Moses and Aaron appear before Pharaoh again. Aaron casts his rod upon the ground and it becomes a serpent. Pharaoh is amazed, but he still refuses to free the Children of Israel. Pharaohs continued refusal brings upon Egypt the ten plagues. Moses finds Pharaoh near the rivers edge and again asks that his people be allowed to go free. When Pharaoh denies again. Aaron smites the water of the river with his rod and the waters are turned into blood. Again Moses appears before Pharaoh and again Pharaoh refuses his request. As God had commanded, Moses stretches his hand toward heaven and immediately a great storm of hail and lightning, such as they had never seen, descends on Egypt, killing man and beast and striking terror to the heart of Pharaoh. Pharaohs heart was again hardened and he still refuses to free the Hebrew children. Again Moses stretches his hand toward heaven, and a thick darkness, a darkness that might be felt, covered the land for three days, so that no one was able to rise from his place. The last and most terrible plague visited on Egypt for Pharaohs continued refusal is the death of all the Egyptian first born. The Feast of the Passover is instituted at this time. Moses directing all the Hebrew people to observe the Feast by killing and preparing a lamb. Moses commands the Children of Israel to sprinkle the door posts on both sides and on top with the blood of the lamb and on every house where they are to eat the Feast of the Passover, and to prepare the Feast. The Feast of the Passover is observed, according to the instructions of Moses, by every Jewish family in Egypt, the Feast consisting of roast lamb with unleavened bread and herbs. The same night that the Feast of the Passover is being observed by the Israelites, the Angel of Death passes over the land of Egypt in the last plague, the death of the first born. The Angel of Death enters every Egyptian home where there is no blood on the doorposts, and the first born of every Egyptian family is slain, from the first born in Pharaohs household to the first born of the captive in the dungeons. The Angel of Death, however, passes by every Jewish home, as God had promised to Moses that where He saw the blood on the doorposts He would pass them over and the plague should not be upon them. In Pharaohs palace Pharaoh and his court are feasting, when the Angel of Death enters and Pharaohs own first born is slain. Pharaoh is overcome with grief at this terrible visitation and sends for Moses and Aaron immediately. The death of his first born softens the heart of Pharaoh and when Moses and Aaron now appear before him he commands them to take the Children of Israel and to depart out of the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron give the command to the Hebrew people, who immediately gather together their possessions and prepare to leave the land of their bondage with reverent and thankful hearts. With Moses and Aaron as leaders, the Israelites begin their exodus from Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs, where they had been slaves for so many years.
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsPierre BressolBahierMaryse DauvrayNew Exploits of Nick Carter: Episode 2
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsPierre BressolNew Exploits of Nick Carter: Episode 3 (presumed)
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsPierre BressolNew Exploits of Nick Carter: Episode 4 (presumed)
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterJean Valjean, hardened and embittered but newly released from prison is transformed by his interaction with the Bishop of Digne.Les Miserables I
- Dramatized from Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables." This film deals with the second chapter in the reformed life of Victor Hugo's hero, Jean Valjean, whom we first met in "The Price of a Soul." It deals with the arrival of the convict, Valjean, at the factory which in later years he comes to own. After the prologue where this is shown the action proceeds after an interval of twenty years, showing the unfortunate Fantine and her child, Cosette, their arrival at the inn of the Thenardiers and her leaving Cosette in their keeping. Next comes her application for work in the factory which is now owned by the Mayor, the man whom we know as Jean Valjean, the convict. Of course his past record is unknown in the town where he has risen from the humble position of a workman to that of chief magistrate. We see Fantine discharged later from the mill for some petty offense and, receiving a letter from the custodians of her child demanding money for a doctor for the little one, driven by desperation into the street. We see her attacking a citizen, who mistreats her, and then, in the Police Station, brought face to face with the Mayor. Believing that he is responsible for her discharge from the mill and her subsequent downfall, she thinks that he jests when he bids the officers release her, and, flying into a rage, she insults him. But his great heart is proof against such treatment and he makes her understand that she has misjudged him, and that henceforth she will be cared for. Here another interesting figure enters the story, that of Javert, the inexorable Inspector of Police. He has a suspicion that the Mayor much resembles a certain convict, Jean Valjean, whom he saw in former years. Inquiry confirming the belief, he sends a letter of denunciation to the State authorities; but the arrest of a peasant for stealing apples and the testimony of three galley-slaves to the fact that he is Jean Valjean, lead Javert to apologize to the Mayor and acknowledge that the real Jean Valjean has been found. Then follows the terrible struggle which Jean Valjean has with himself. Shall he let an innocent man suffer for his old convict record or shall he announce his own identity and thus sacrifice all his years of happiness and all of his present power and position? His promise to Fantine to bring her child to her makes his decision all the harder, but, remembering the good bishop who had taught him the better way and had bought his soul for good, he makes the sacrifice. In a powerfully dramatic scene he appears in the court room just as sentence is about to be pronounced on the other man, announces his own identity, and later, at the bedside of Fantine, submits to arrest at the hands of the relentless Javert.Les Miserables II
- As in the two previous films this story, though complete in itself, is really another incident in the life of Victor Hugo's hero, Jean Valjean. It begins with his heroic rescue of an unfortunate sailor who has fallen and hangs suspended between sea and sky from the yardarm of a man-of-war. Jean Valjean, the convict, gets permission from the officer and, climbing the rigging, rescues the man. His feet having been set free to perform this office, he takes advantage of the fact and pretends to accidentally fall from the yardarm into the sea. Once there, he disappears from view, and the careful search of the officers and sailors results in the decision that the man has drowned. But we see him reappear in the forest where he has before his arrest secreted clothing and funds, and we see him find the unfortunate Fantine's little daughter, Cosette. She has been sent by the brutal Thenardiers to bring water from the spring, and when the giant convict reaches down and takes the heavy pail from her hands a new chapter is opened in both her life and his own Jean returns with her to the inn, and, after saving her from a whipping at the hands of Madam Thenardier, he offers to take the child from them. They drive a hard bargain, making him pay expenses far in advance of what has been actually incurred for the child, but he takes her with him. Regretting that they have not driven a still more advantageous bargain, the Thenardiers decide to attempt to secure more money for her release, and Thenardier himself pursues Jean and Cosette, overtaking them in the woods. Jean refuses to take back the money and relinquish the child, and, when Thenardier grows insistent, he produces the deathbed order from her mother, proving his right to the child. He does this with full knowledge of the risk he runs of being traced by the authorities, but sees no other way out of it. The result is that Thenardier and his wife make the case known to Inspector Javert, the inexorable officer who has pursued our hero throughout the story. Javert follows him to Paris, where he and Cosette have taken humble lodgings, and, after satisfying himself that Jean is really the convict he is searching for, he secures gendarmes and follows him. In attempting to escape, Jean and Cosette find themselves in a close alleyway almost surrounded by high walls, the only entrance being that through which the soldiers are coming. Jean takes advantage of the dexterity learned as a convict and succeeds in climbing an angle of the stone wall, and pulling Cosette up after him, drops over into the convent yard just in time to baffle his pursuers. Javert and the soldiers linger in this part of the town and the danger is by no means past. Jean finds, in the gardener of the convict, an old employee, whose devotion prompts him to secrete Jean from the nuns until an opportunity occurs to get him safely away. This opportunity comes through the desire of the nuns to bury one of their number beneath the altar, which is in direct disobedience of a city ordinance. To seem to comply with the ordinance they must send a coffin supposed to contain the nun to the cemetery. The faithful old employee is entrusted with this task and as a reward for its successful carrying out, is promised a position in the convent employ for his brother and his brother's little daughter. Jean Valjean is thus secure of a future for himself and Cosette. In the coffin Jean Valjean travels safely past Javert and his soldiers to the graveyard, where Cosette, who has been carried out in the old employee's basket, meets him. But the grave-digger at the cemetery insists on carrying out the duties of his office and burying the casket, and it is only through a clever ruse on the part of the faithful old servitor that the grave-digger is gotten out of the way and Jean finally released. This film contains more dramatic incidents than either of its predecessors, and the touching story of the young child's loving influence in the life of the great-hearted Jean Valjean will make a direct and moving appeal to everyone.Les Miserables III
- DirectorViggo LarsenStarsPaul OttoViggo Larsen
- DirectorViggo LarsenStarsViggo LarsenPaul Otto
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsCharles KraussAlexandre ArquillièreAndré LiabelA sensational detective story, founded on the romance of Leon Sazie. The noted criminal who terrorized all Europe is shown in these three Zigomar reels in a dramatic and intense struggle for supremacy with Paulin Broquet, the celebrated detective, who takes the two in the most varied and finest resorts. It is literally a chase through the entire continent, with Broquet now having the upper hand and again Zigomar in its possession. Zigomar is the leader of a band of men who persist in plundering rich and poor. They know Broquet is on their trail and set a trap for him. However, he escapes, and in the melee which follows, when he nearly captures Zigomar, the latter also flees. A wonderful feature of this production is the "Will o' the Wisp" dance which the noted dancer, Esmée, performs at a ball in the Moulin Rouge in Paris. The festival begins by a magnificent procession, in which the dancer is carried in a litter, bedecked with jewels. In the succeeding darkness, tiny flames light up and Esmée appears clad in white veils. She appears in the semi-darkness as a white apparition. Then the dance becomes gayer, the dancer turns faster, like a flower with changing colors, and finally sinks exhausted to the floor. There are effects of colored light in this picture that never have been seen before. Immediately following there is a scene of great contrast when Zigomar sets fire to the place and the scene ends in wild disorder.Zigomar Vs. Nick Carter: Episode 1 (presumed)
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsAlexandre ArquillièreCharles KraussAndré LiabelNick Carter, the famous detective, is ordered to prosecute the gang of Zigomar. Carter gets into various thorny situations but manages to escape every time, helped by Olga, a former girlfriend of Zigomar.
- DirectorLuigi MaggiStarsMario BonnardMary Cleo TarlariniFernanda Negri PougetA four chapter film including Satan vs the Creator, Satan vs the Saviour, The Green Demon/Satan during the Dark Ages and The Red Demon/Satan in modern times.
- DirectorCharles BrabinStarsMary FullerMarc McDermottCharles OgleThe forerunner of all serials, "What Happened to Mary" was a series of 12 monthly one-reel episodes, each a complete entity in itself, revolving its immediate dramatic and melodramatic problems within the framework of a single episode and designed more for story and suspense situations than action. Episode Titles (q.v.): #1: "The Escape from Bondage"; #2: "Alone in New York"; #3: "Mary in Stage Land"; #4: "The Affair at Raynor's"; #5: "A Letter to the Princess"; #6: "A Clue to Her Parentage"; #7: "False to Their Trust"; #8: "A Will and a Way"; #9: "A Way to the Underworld"; #10: "The High Tide of Misfortune"; #11: "A Race to New York"; #12: "Fortune Smiles."
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRenée Carl
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené Navarre
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRenée Carl
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené Navarre
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorInspector Juve is tasked to investigate and capture an infamous criminal Fantomas.Fantomas: Episode 1
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorIn Part Two of Louis Feuillade's 5 1/2-hour epic follows Fantômas, the criminal lord of Paris, master of disguise, the creeping assassin in black, as he is pursued by the equally resourceful Inspector Juve.Fantomes: Episode 2
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorAfter a body disappears from inside the prison, a series of crimes take place, all seemingly by the dead man. With Juve presumed dead, Fandor must investigate alone. Will Fantomas finally be brought to justice?Fantomas: Episode 3
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreGeorges MelchiorLaurent MorléasThe press and the public opinion suggest that Inspector Juve may in fact be Fantômas. As Juve is jailed, the actual Fantômas schemes to keep him behind bars forever.Fantomas: Episode 4
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsRené NavarreEdmund BreonGeorges MelchiorHaving committed murder in Belgium, Fantomas is sentenced to life imprisonment. Two crimes committed in France suggest to inspector Juve that the Fantomas gang is still at work. He conceives the idea that if Fantomas is set free it will be possible to follow him and capture him and the remaining members of the gang. The villain escapes from prison and makes his way to the railroad station and boards a train where he is tracked by private detectives. When the train stops at a country station, Fantomas alights with the intention of making good his escape, but he finds that he is being followed by two detectives, whom he recognizes. He goes back to his carriage, which leads the detectives to think he is quite safe, but he crosses the train and leaves by the opposite door, jumping into the baggage wagon of the train on the opposite rail. Just at that moment the train moves and a magistrate who happens to have nearly missed the train also jumps into the baggage wagon. Fantomas was who hiding, attacks the magistrate, and after a severe struggle in which he is victorious assumes the disguise of the magistrate and takes his clothes and papers. He continues the journey as the magistrate, successfully rescues certain criminals, who are brought before him to be tried, and manages to blackmail several members of society, with whom he is brought in contact. While here he is recognized by Fandor, the young and clever journalist who happens to come into the district and who has suspicions as to the authenticity of the magistrate. He decides to keep watch upon him. His suspicions are well founded and he identifies the magistrate as none other than Fantomas. After much trouble, he is able to get papers committing Fantomas to prison, but Fantomas' suspecting his immediate arrest, issues an order to the head warden, and tells him that it is Detective Juve's intention to be arrested disguised as Fantomas. The warden is not to tell a soul of the detective's intentional disguise, but is to let him remain in prison until 12 o'clock midnight, when the head warden is to personally release him. The police, not suspecting anything of this, feel quite safe when Fantomas is put in the cell and securely barred and locked. His scheme works favorably and once more Fantomas is at large.Fantomas: Episode 5
- DirectorFrancis J. GrandonStarsKathlyn WilliamsCharles ClaryHorace B. CarpenterThe daughter of an adventurer in India is kidnapped by a native king, whom she is forced to marry. She has several adventures battling natives and wild animals.
- DirectorAlbert CapellaniStarsHenry KraussHenri ÉtiévantMaria VenturaJean Valjean, a good man convicted of a minor crime, escapes from imprisonment and spends the rest of his life running from the vindictive and implacable man of the law, Javert.
- DirectorAlbert CapellaniStarsMaria VenturaMaria FrometMistinguettJean Valjean, guilty of a minor theft of food, is pursued and hounded for years by a relentless lawman, Javert.
- DirectorWalter EdwinStarsMary FullerBen F. WilsonRichard Tucker
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsAlexandre ArquillièreAndré LiabelAttilio MaffeiPaulin Broquet, the great Parisian detective, has brought the notorious bandit, Zigomar, to justice. Determined not to let the law punish him, he had taken poison in the Hall of Justice. Then he was brought to a hospital where he lay motionless and was visited by hundreds of persons. Among the visitors was a slender woman, dressed in black, who secreted herself in the hospital, and, when all the others had gone, went to the bedside of Zigomar and administered an antidote for poisoning. She was none other than La Rosario, the accomplice of Zigomar. Almost instantaneous with the administering of the antidote, Zigomar opened his eyes and sprang from the bier. They were about to leave the room when the surgeon entered to take a portion of the skin from the bandit's arm, which was all the great detective desired as a recompense for the capture of Zigomar. But he was quickly pounced upon, gagged and placed upon the bier where he was found the next morning by the detective. Later the bandit set a trap for the infuriated Broquet into which he unsuspectingly fell. When the detective was in this predicament, Zigomar offered him $250,000 if he would let him alone. Not acquiescing in this, Zigomar then thrust his captive into an iron cage where he would have starved to death had it not been for the timely rescue by his lieutenant.
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsAlexandre ArquillièreJosette AndriotAndré LiabelThe next dastardly trick of Zigomar was to secure the safe which carried $50,000 belonging to the owner of the Grand African Circus, which he had won as a prize. He and La Rosario, disguised as servants, joined the circus and by the aid of a powerful elephant managed to get the safe to a manhole into which is was lowered to Zigomar and La Rosario. But it slipped from the ledge and soon sank out of sight in the mud. The case for the apprehension of the thief was placed in the hands of Paulin Broquet, and, disguised, he started to investigate. In the circus parade the next day he saw Zigomar and made a grab for him. La Rosario saw this, and, obedient to her command, her trained elephant took Broquet around the waist and hurled him to the ground. In the confusion Zigomar and La Rosario escaped.
- DirectorVictorin-Hippolyte JassetStarsAlexandre ArquillièreJosette AndriotAndré LiabelAfter a time of suspended activities, Zigomar attempted to rob the biggest bank in Paris; but in this he was frustrated by the detective. Swearing vengeance he tried to wreck the train upon which the detective was traveling, but one of the detective's spies got wind of it and warned him. Ascertaining that the detective was to make his journey by motorboat instead of by rail, Zigomar and La Rosario, at the point of revolvers, forced an aviator to carry them high up in the air, and, when directly above the motorboat, Zigomar dropped several explosive bombs upon the frail craft, blowing it into pieces and injuring the detective so seriously that he was placed in a hospital. When he was convalescent, Broquet received a letter of invitation from the banker, whom he had warned against the diabolical machinations of Zigomar, to come to his house and see how he entertained his guests. While there, the banker showed Broquet how he, by an ingenious arrangement of mirrors, was able to see the strong room of the bank. While they were looking Zlgomiir and his band broke into the strong room and began to loot the safes. By pressing a button, the strong room was soon flooded and the bandits captured.
- DirectorLouis J. GasnierDonald MacKenzieStarsPearl WhiteCrane WilburPaul PanzerPauline, a young maiden, must protect herself from the treacherous "guardian" of her inheritance, who repeatedly plots to murder her and take the money for himself.
- DirectorCharles Taze RussellThe Photo-Drama of Creation, is a four-part Christian film produced by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. The film presents the Bible's account of God's plan from the creation of the earth through to the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.
- DirectorJ. Gunnis DavisJ.P. McGowanRobert G. VignolaStarsHelen HolmesHelen GibsonJ.P. McGowanHelen, informed of the danger which menaces an excursion train because another engine on the same track is running wild, mounts a motorcycle and speeds down the track to warn the passengers of their imminent peril.
- DirectorLouis J. GasnierGeorge B. SeitzLeopold WhartonStarsPearl WhiteArnold DalyCreighton HaleWith the help of a private detective, Elaine tries to catch the masked criminal mastermind The Clutching Hand, who has murdered her father.
- DirectorWalter EdwinStarsMary FullerYale BossCharles OgleEpisode 1: "The Perfect Truth" The day after Dolly Desmond had startled the community with the excellence of her graduation oration, Bobby North, a reporter on the local paper, suggested that it would be a good idea for her to write stories and things for his paper. Dolly was delighted with the idea, and started at once to put it into effect. She decided to write a story, which, although ostensibly fictional, should actually give a truthful picture of life about her as she saw it. After a week of hard work, which involved much burning of midnight oil and much weariness for the fair young authoress, the masterpiece was finished. The editor was delighted with it. It was published under the title, "The Perfect Truth: A Story of Real Life" and, at Dolly's request, the name of the author was omitted. On the afternoon of the publication of the story, the Ladies' Home Sewing Guild was engaged in its customary routine of languid needlework and somnolent gossip. One of the members began to read "The Perfect Truth," but stopped with a gasp of surprise, and called the attention of the other members to the article. In graphic, pitiless bits of description, the essential characteristics of each of the members of the Ladies' Guild were set forth so plainly, that there was no possibility of mistaking their several identities. Dolly had used the pen of a satirist with telling effect. The meeting of the Ladies' Guild ended in a furor of confusion. Mrs. Broome, the hostess of the afternoon, who had been particularly scored by the anonymous author, rushed to the newspaper office and demanded the name of her defamer. The editor refused to give her the desired information, but a note from Dolly on Bobby's desk made all things clear to Mrs. Broome. With the spreading of the news, the storm center shifted to Dolly's home. While indignant citizens waited on Mr. Desmond, and threatened to withdraw their accounts from his bank, the infuriated wives filled Mrs. Desmond's ears with their complaints. Dolly's father commanded her to stop the story and make a public apology, but Dolly, for the first time in her life, refused to comply with her parents' wishes. With the fifty dollars her story had brought in, she left for the city to earn her own living. We shall discover later what happened to her there. Episode 2: "The Ghost of Mother Eve" The first thing Dolly did after her arrival in New York was to try to find herself a job. The fifty dollars she had been paid for her story was practically all she had, and Dolly was wise enough to know that such an amount would not carry her very far in the city. At the very time that Dolly went to apply for a position on "The Comet," Mrs. Yorke, a wealthy society woman, was also on the list of applicants. But whereas Dolly merely wanted a position in order that she might feed and clothe herself, Mrs. Yorke desired a sinecure of a post wherein she might indulge her love for notoriety and scandal. As not infrequently happens, the rich and undeserving succeeded, while the poor and deserving failed. Dolly was politely turned away, while the paper agreed to publish a column from Mrs. Yorke's pen under the name of "Mother Eve." Mrs. Yorke noticed Dolly as she was leaving the newspaper office. Discovering the girl's literary ability, she invited her to lunch, and offered Dolly a position as her private secretary. Dolly, naturally enough, jumped at the offer, and entered upon her duties immediately. The main portion of her duties consisted in writing the "Mother Eve" column. Mrs. Yorke had not the remotest idea how to set about her self-appointed task. All she cared for was the money. For some days Dolly was moderately contented and happy. But one afternoon, while she was collecting news of an approaching ball in the showrooms of a fashionable modiste, she happened to encounter Mrs. Yorke. That estimable lady looked over and past and through Dolly, without the slightest trace of recognition in her face. When Dolly entered her room that evening to accomplish her nightly literary task, she fell, sprained her wrist, and promptly fainted. When Mrs. Yorke returned from a dance in the wee small hours of the next morning, she found a copy boy waiting patiently for the "Mother Eve" material. Dolly, roused from her swoon, was unable to work the typewriter on account of her wrist. So the copy boy wrote it to her dictation, while Mrs. Yorke stood by and fumed. After the boy bad left, Mrs. Yorke was highly unpleasant. Dolly, in a few crisp words, told her employer exactly what she thought of her, and informed her that hereafter she could write her own column. Then Dolly went away. Episode 3: "An Affair of Dress" It will he remembered that Dolly was engaged by Mrs. Yorke, a fashionable member of the smart set, to write a society column for the "Comet." Dolly furnished the brains and did the work. Mrs. Yorke received the money. After she had received a few unpleasant proofs of her employer's unreasonable selfishness, Dolly shook the dust of the Yorke mansion from her feet, and departed. In the course of her gathering of society notes, Dolly had met Minnie, a mannequin in a fashionable tailoring establishment. As luck would have it, there was a vacancy when Dolly arrived to ask Minnie about her work, and twenty-four hours after her quarrel with Mrs. Yorke, the girl was engaged at Browngrass' as a mannequin, with the princely salary of twenty-five dollars a week. Let it not be supposed that she was entirely infatuated with her position. She had come to the city to write, and write she would eventually. This was merely a makeshift, a temporary bar to keep the wolf from the door. There were other reasons too, why her situation did not satisfy her. The proprietor was kind, a little too kind, Dolly thought. One afternoon, he tried to kiss her, and she, quite naturally, slapped his face. In the midst of all her little difficulties, Dolly was not allowing herself to drift out of touch with the magazine and newspaper world. A poem sent by her to the "Jester," brought a gratifying return in the shape of a letter from the editor inquiring into her capabilities for a small editorial position. Later, the editor called, and since he was a nice sort of person, Dolly took dinner with him. In the excitement of the moment, she sailed off to the restaurant in the gown she was wearing. As it happened, the proprietor of Browngrass' came to the restaurant, saw the gown, called a policeman, and ordered him to arrest Dolly. Aid came from an unexpected quarter. Rockwell Crosby, editor of the "Comet," was sitting at the next table. He discovered that Dolly had written Mrs. Yorke's column, showed his card to the policeman, and ordered him to remove the angry proprietor. Dolly, he said, had no connection with Browngrass'. She was his star reporter. After the man had been removed and Dolly thanked Crosby for his kind lie, he told her it was the truth. She was engaged. Episode 4: "Putting One Over" When Miss Mindel, president of the Reform League, received a pathetic letter from certain tenants of the Union Realty Company, complaining of unsanitary living conditions and unjust rents, she wrote a sharp letter to the president of the Realty Company, threatening action in the courts unless improvements were made. James Boliver, the president, had put his company into its position of prominence, largely through his entirely unscrupulous method of dealing with any type of opposition to his plans. Briefly summing up the probable results of any action on the part of the Reform League, he decided that it must be prevented at any cost, so he decided to bribe Miss Mindel. Miss Mindel did not understand the carefully couched letter she received from Boliver, asking her to come and see him. She felt that she was getting into deep water, and decided to appeal to the newspapers, before taking any action. At the office of "The Comet," where she went first, Miss Mindel met Dolly Desmond, and with characteristic impulsiveness, told her the whole story. Dolly immediately hit on a plan, which she confided to Miss Mindel. That good lady, after some thought, consented to it. She was personally unknown to Boliver, and there seemed no reason why the plan should not succeed. In accordance with it, Dolly presented herself at the Union Realty Company's office as Miss Mindel. Mr. Boliver was very nice to her, indeed, and, finding her even more compliant than he had hoped, gave her a check for five thousand dollars, and allowed her to write him a receipt on the typewriter. Dolly made a carbon copy of the receipt, thanked Mr. Boliver, and turned to go. At the door she met Mr. Browngrass, her late employer, who happened to be one of the directors of the company. Since Browngrass recognized her immediately, there was nothing left for Dolly but flight via the fire escape. The enraged directors pursued her, but without result. She got her story in in time to go to press, and we leave Dolly glancing affectionately at the staring headlines of her "scoop." Episode 5: "The Chinese Fan" All newspaperdom was excited over the strange disappearance of Muriel Armstrong and each daily was doing its best to discover the missing heiress first, and thus secure for themselves one of the most sensational bits of news of the day, but no trace of her could be found, despite all efforts. The editor of the Comet ground his cigar and swore impotently and even Dolly, the star reporter, was at a loss for clues. Dolly was pondering over the matter on her way to her evening's assignment: the Chinese theater in Mott Street, where she was detailed to report the play. During the second act a little Chinese pin in the shape of a fan, which Dolly was wearing, unconscious of its significance to the Tongs, started a riot in the theater. As Dolly was escaping down the side street a huge hand protruded itself from a small door, pulled her inside, down a narrow corridor and thrust her into an ill-lighted den. How could she get out? She pounded on the door and called for assistance but all that greeted her was a chuckle and a slushing of soft footsteps down the corridor. She peered around in the gloom and suddenly a frightened bundle of humanity detached itself from the corner and a young girl fell at Dolly's feet, imploring assistance. Dolly raised her gently, looked into her face and discovered that she was Muriel Armstrong, the missing heiress. All fear of the Chinese vanished. Here was the scoop of the year. Fate helped her too, for the half-crazed opium fiend who was Muriel's guard, upset the lamp and set the place on fire. This enabled Dolly and her prize to escape and the next morning the heiress was turned over to her delighted parents. Episode 6: "On the Heights" Dolly's friend, Rockwell Crosby, editor of the "Comet." disagrees with the management and resigned. Dolly was disappointed at the news, but that was as nothing compared to her rage at the attitude of his successor, who was a self-confessed "hustler" and intended to make everybody on the paper "sit up and take notice." The first assignment he gave Dolly was to wander about the streets after dark until she found a story. Dolly was furious. She had made a distinct place for herself on the staff, and was accustomed to being treated with consideration. There was nothing to do but obey, so Dolly started out. To her amazement she ran across Ella Snyder, an old school friend, who was weeping bitterly. She had eloped with a young man named Oliver Allen. Oliver had brought her to a hotel, and had departed in search of a license. Having not come back for two hours Ella concluded that she had been deceived and decided to drown herself. Dolly took the girl home, told her not to be silly, and went to get Allen. She found him at the hotel bewildered at the disappearance of his bride-to-be. Dolly, convinced that his intentions were honorable, took him back with her. They found Ella had disappeared again. She left a note, saying she had resolved to die. In order to repay Dolly, Ella said she was going to jump from the highest building in town, so Dolly could make a scoop of the news. Dolly and Allen rushed to the Woolworth Building, and stopped Ella just in time. Then they repaired to the City Hall, where Ella and Allen were married. Dolly returned to the office and told the editor she had a story, but didn't intend to write it. He was wildly indignant at first, until she had calmly explained she knew perfectly what she was doing. Episode 7: "The End of the Umbrella" The Aqueduct Construction Company has been having a good deal of trouble with certain anarchistic elements, who, anxious to seize any cause of discontent to further the bloody revolution they hoped for, opposed the building of the great pipe which would carry fresh sparkling water to the crowded people of the great city. Finally, after the company had been worried half to death by anonymous threats, a tremendous explosion killed a couple of dozen workmen and completely wrecked the main section of the great work. Dolly Desmond, in the city office of the newspaper, heard of the catastrophe and begged the editor to allow her to investigate it. The editor, who had formed a high opinion of Dolly's character, readily consented, and Dolly set out for the scene of the disaster. As she wandered about the wrecked aqueduct, she came upon a curious umbrella handle in among several pieces of a shattered bomb. Dolly kept her find and said nothing about it to anybody. With some little difficulty, she succeeded in obtaining a position as cashier in the dining room of the little hotel near the works. She had the umbrella handle placed on a new umbrella, put it in the stand where she could keep her eye on it, and settled herself to watch. It wasn't as easy a matter to devote her entire attention to the stand as she had thought at first, for Grant, a young engineer at the works, fell madly in love with her. and insisted on talking to her at every opportunity. At last, when she was on the point of giving up in disgust, a shifty-eyed individual picked up the umbrella, started to go out with it, and then apparently remembering, looked at it, put it down and looked frightened. Dolly recognized him as "Nutty Jim," one of the lodgers in the hotel. That evening Dolly went up to his room to investigate. She had just unearthed several bombs when Nutty Jim entered and sprang at her. She fired at him, but missed. A bomb was knocked off the table and exploded. Nutty Jim was killed and Dolly severely injured. We leave her at the hospital with the anxious Grant at her side, delightedly reading her "scoop" in the Comet. Episode 8: "A Tight Squeeze" When the news came to the Comet office that Mr. Martinengro, the well-known Italian-American merchant and philanthropist, had been murdered, Dolly Desmond was very anxious to have the assignment. To her disgust, the managing editor gave the story to Hillary Graham, the young man Dolly had met in "Mother Eve's" house. Dolly, forced to be satisfied with a Salvation Army wedding. Hillary set off on his assignment in high spirits. He had not made much of a success of reporting yet, but he was confident that his work in this case would convince the Comet management that he was one man in a thousand. Arrived in a dingy little barroom near the scene of the crime, he announced his intention of apprehending the criminals to the interested bartender. As a result, a few minutes later, Hillary was knocked on the head and thrown into the cellar. Dolly, after finishing her report on the wedding, donned a Salvation Army uniform, and accompanied the band about town in search of more material. In the course of her wanderings, she entered the barroom, and saw a necktie on the floor which she had noticed that morning on Hillary. Creeping unobserved into the cellar, she discovered the unconscious Hillary lying on a pile of coal. As she stood in puzzled anxiety, wondering how she could possibly save the young man and herself, she was startled by a sudden rush of coal into the cellar, through the coal hole from the street. Daddy, the copy boy on the Comet, happened to be on the street above, watching the coal men at their task. Hearing a muffled cry, he stopped the men. A moment later Dolly crawled through the hole. She and Daddy rushed for the police. After Hillary had been rescued, the police entered the saloon, and arrested its occupants. A lucky chance resulted in the discovery of the Martinengro murderers. While Dolly was writing her story in the police station, the grateful Hillary proposed. Dolly was non-committal. She was afraid she wasn't quite ready to give up her adventurous life even for so successful a reporter as he was. Episode 9: "A Terror of the Night" Mrs. Winslow, a young widow, owned a piece of property known as "Beach House," for which the Union Realty Company were the agents. The money for the rental of the property meant a good deal to Mrs. Winslow, and when her tenants began to grow few and far between, she naturally called on her agents to inquire into the causes. President Bolivar, of the Realty Company, gravely informed her that "Beach House" was haunted. To substantiate his remarks, he showed Mrs. Winslow some newspaper clippings about the reported ghost at the house. Many complaints had been received from tenants and the property was becoming more and more impossible to rent. In short, Mr. Bolivar advised Mrs. Winslow to accept the Realty Company's very generous offer of $10,000 for the property worth $50,000. Mrs. Winslow thought that her property was worth more and went to consult her friend, Dolly Desmond, the star reporter on "The Comet." Dolly, instantly excited at the prospect of investigating a haunted house, suggested that Mrs. Winslow leave the property to her for the space of a week. Mrs. Winslow made out the necessary papers and then went to Bolivar and told him what she had done. Bolivar, an old enemy of Dolly, immediately planned a trap for her. He arrived at Beach House a little while after Dolly had made herself at home in one of the gray dreary rooms. After his first expression of pretended surprise, he began to make love to her, but the derisiveness of her answer showed plainly that his original plan was useless. So he bowed and took his leave. Dolly slept that night on a sofa in the front hall in the midst of a number of garden implements which had been stowed there for safekeeping. In the middle of the night, she was awakened by a slight noise. Looking up, a terrible sight met her eyes. A shrouded figure, clad in garments of ghastly white, was coming down the stairs toward her. Instead of shrieking and fainting, Dolly turned the hose on the advancing figure. It halted, wavered, and then ran out of the house and into the arms of Malone, who had just arrived to investigate the anonymous letter. The ghost was, of course, Bolivar, who had chosen this means of attempting to get Mrs. Winslow's property at a low price. Episode 10: "Dolly Plays Detective" When Mrs. Cambridge invited Dolly Desmond, and Malone, the managing editor of the Comet, to a dinner party, Malone naturally offered to take Dolly around to the Cambridge's in his car. For in the short space of time in which he had held his new office on the Comet staff, Malone had grown very fond of the clever young girl. When, on their way to the party, Dolly waved her hand to her old friend the policeman on the beat, she noticed a quick frown of displeasure on Malone's face. To tease him, she started to flirt outrageously with all the men present as soon as she arrived at the dinner, among whom was one of society's newest lions, the Count de Rochepierre. In the midst of the dinner, it was suddenly discovered that one of the ladies' necklaces was missing. She had worn it about her neck when she sat down, and it seemed absolutely inconceivable that anybody should have been able to remove it in the brilliantly-lighted room. On the following afternoon, the count called on Dolly, and begged her to accept a beautiful ring as a slight token of his esteem. Dolly, who rather enjoyed leading the count on, told him she should be delighted to wear it. Shortly after he had apparently taken his leave, Mrs. Cambridge and several ladies came to call. At Dolly's suggestion, a game of auction bridge was commenced. As they sat about the table, precisely the same thing happened as on the preceding night. Two of the ladies' necklaces vanished. The fact that Dolly had been present at both occasions when the mysterious occurrence had taken place, seemed a little significant. The ladies left hurriedly, and somewhat coolly. Left alone, Dolly decided to go and see the Count. She was led to this decision by several suspicious little incidents she had observed. In the Count's quarters, she discovered not only the missing necklaces, but absolute proof of how he had perpetrated his astonishing crimes. But even cleverer than her discovery of his method, was the way in which she inveigled the Count into playing a game of '"Forfeits" at the Cambridge's, and at the crucial moment in the game, clapped a pair of handcuffs on him and turned him over to the police. Episode 11: "Dolly at the Helm" When the city editor of the Comet burst into the managing editor's office and told him that his child was desperately ill with diphtheria, Malone, the managing editor, naturally told him to take as much time off as he wanted. Malone himself was feeling very badly at the time, and his resolution to take charge personally of the city editor's department was never carried out. Shortly after the city editor had left, Malone fainted at his desk. Dolly Desmond, the Comet's star reporter, found him there when she came into the room. She revived Malone from his stupor and had him taken home. In nine cases out of ten, both Malone and the city editor might well have been absent without any particular disturbance in the ordinary routine of the office. It was four o'clock on an unusually dull summer afternoon. The likelihood of anything happening seemed extremely remote. However, scarcely had Malone been taken away when things started. A terrible excursion boat catastrophe was the first. Right on its heels came the news that a great hotel was burning. In the excited chaos into which the Comet office was plunged, Dolly showed the stuff of which she was made. Her small hand seized the deserted tiller and with the quick incisive decision which was her chief characteristic, she wearied the legs of messenger boys, and kept the telephone wires hot with the dispatching of her swift Napoleanic commands. When it was all over, and the day was won, Dolly received a letter from home telling her that her father's bank was on the verge of ruin, largely as a result of the hard feeling which had been stirred up by Dolly's story, "The Perfect Truth." Poor Dolly, at her wits' end, went to Malone for advice. She took the manuscript of "The Perfect Truth" with her. Malone' s illness was a blessing in disguise for it gave him a chance to read the story, the first installment of which had had such a disastrous effect. He was amazed by its brilliance of style and theme. In a gush of unwanted enthusiasm he told Dolly that he was willing to publish the story at his own expense as a speculation. So Dolly, with her hopes once again raised, went away with the dim belief growing in her that "The Perfect Truth" might not be so bad a thing for her father as it had at first seemed. Episode 12: "The Last Assignment" When Dolly Desmond left the home of her youth to embark on a journalistic career in the city, she left the town in a state of furor behind her. The story called "The Perfect Truth," the first installment of which Dolly published in the town newspaper, aroused so much resentment against Dolly that the townspeople revenged themselves by withdrawing their money from her father's bank. Two or three months after Dolly went away, the bank was in such straits that suspension of payment seemed only a matter of hours. Then "The Perfect Truth" in its complete form was published as a book. It met with an immediate and startling success. Dolly attained to fame and wealth almost overnight. The echo of her success reached her native town, and people began to sit up and take notice. It was one thing to feel themselves the butt of the joke of an immature schoolgirl, and quite another to know that they had been the material from which a famous authoress had drawn her inspiration. In the midst of the excitement, Bobby, at the newspaper office, suddenly received word that Dolly was coming to town. The news was not an unmixed pleasure for Bobby. He had an evil conscience. He had been madly in love with Dolly before she left town, and believed that she cared a good deal for him. After she left, he fell in love with another girl. However, Bobby's first duty in the matter was perfectly clear. So he wrote up a headline article for his paper announcing Dolly's arrival. The town went wild with excitement. Fame was about to fall upon it again for the first time since Hank Bowers had been lynched for horse stealing many years before. All hatred and jealousy was forgotten and Dolly was welcomed by a tremendous popular demonstration. The first thing she did was to set her father's bank on its feet again, partly with the help of the money she had made and partly by the use of her extremely persuasive tongue. In the midst of the excitement, a stranger arrived in town, James Malone, the enterprising business manager of Dolly's paper. Everybody wondered who he was, and Bobby was the first to find out. For when he went to Dolly's house, with hanging head, to explain how matters stood, she told him that she was going to marry Malone. And that is how we leave Dolly with one career behind her, and another and far finer one ahead.
- DirectorCharles GiblynStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushLon ChaneyFrancois Villon, vagabond, poet and philosopher, and his friend Colin, leave the vagabond camp and start for Paris. En route to that city, Villon's heart is touched at sight of the eviction of an elderly couple from their poor home. Whereupon he empties his own and Colin's purse, pays the Beadle, and then resume their journey. Overcome with the pangs of hunger, they "lift " the purses of a couple of corpulent monks. For this breach of law both Villon and Colin are arrested and thrown into prison. They succeed in overpowering the turnkey and, assisted by Colin, who insists that his friend don the clothes of the turnkey, Villon makes his escape. Colin is tried, convicted and hanged. At the foot of the gibbet, Villon's farewell to the swinging Colin is interrupted by the entrance of the Chevalier do Soissons. Villon resents the knight's tirade against the corpse of Colin. Fight ensues and the crafty vagabond slays the knight, using as a weapon a great stone. The rich purse, armor, etc., of de Soissons proves too strong a snare for the impoverished Villon, who quickly changes habiliments with the dead knight, props the body against the gallows and then continues on his way to Paris. Philippa de Annonnay, the fair ward of the Chevalier Bertrand de Pogne, is held prisoner in an inn. Villon chooses this inn wherein to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Here he meets de Pogne. From her window she sees the entrance of Villon and determines to appeal to the strange knight. An animated discussion between Villon and de Pogne is interrupted by a scream from Philips. Villon starts to climb the stairs to the gallery of the inn. De Pogne bars the way and a terrific battle with swords ensues. The fight continues up the stairs and toward Philippa's window, through which the girl reaches as the fight continues on the balcony and stabs de Pogne, who falls to the floor below, dead. Villon conducts Philippa safely to her castle, then resumes his journey to Paris. Having dissipated the proceeds of the de Soissons adventure, Villon hies himself to a garret, where he spends his time in courting the muses. Louis XI, the "Prowler," determines to test the loyalty of Villon. To this end, the king hies himself to a dungeon in the Bastille, causes the arrest of Villon, then offers that worthy his freedom if he will help overthrow the king. Villon indignantly refuses to purchase his freedom at such a price. Whereupon Louis reveals himself to the poet and presents Villon with a bound copy of his (Villon's) manuscript, which was the first book to be printed in France. Then Louis knights him, bestowing upon Villon the title Chevalier des Loges.
- DirectorHowell HanselFrederick SullivanStarsMarguerite SnowJames CruzeHarry BenhamEpisode 1: "The Mystic Message of the Spotted Collar" Zudora, 18, has a guardian, Hassam Ali, a disciple of Hindu mysticism. Hassam Ali was a fakir with a small caravan circus. Zudora's mother was his sister and the rope walker. Zudora's father remained in a small mining town where he prospected for gold. As the story opens Zudora, her mother and Hassam Ali, her uncle, are visiting the town of Zudora's birth and where Zudora's father is still prospecting. Zudora's father finds that the Zudora mine yields a wonderful run of gold. He becomes over-zealous and is killed in an explosion. He wills the entire mine, which is valued at $20,000,000, to Zudora, when she reaches her eighteenth birthday, and in the event of Zudora's death, going to the nearest heir-at-law. Zudora's mother receives information of her husband's death when she is about to ascend the rope and give her performance. She falls to the ground, and with a dying gasp turns over to Hassam Ali the guardianship of Zudora. Zudora reaches her eighteenth year. Hassam Ali has set himself up as a mystic, but his one purpose in life is to rid himself of Zudora, so that the mine will be his. He is also anxious to rid himself of John Storm, Zudora's sweetheart. He has kept from Zudora the information about her inheritance. He at last arrives at one plan that seems safe. Zudora has evidenced quite wonderful powers of deduction. He tells her that since she has always been so anxious to incorporate herself in his work, he will give her the next twenty cases he is called upon to solve. He says: "If you win, you may marry John Storm. If you lose on any one of them, you renounce him forever." Zudora's sweetheart is involved in a great case for the city. Opposed to him is one Bienreith, a prominent lawyer. The case is going well for John Storm. Hassam Ali decides that after eighteen years of waiting it is time to use heroic measures. He denounces Storm in front of Zudora, and then tells her about the twenty cases. The very first thing in the courtroom, Storm slaps the face of Bienreith, after a particularly insulting speech, and is invited to a duel that night. An hour later the newspapers are full of her sweetheart's trouble. Zudora rushes to his side and finds him practicing with a revolver. She plans to keep him from meeting Bienreith. She purchases a drug, and drops it in a glass of drinking water. Next morning the papers tell of Storm's disappearance. The great mystery of it is that Bienreith has been found dead in his room and the blame placed upon John Storm. Storm is arrested. Zudora rushes to her uncle and begs that this be her first case. When she goes to Bienreith's home that morning she finds the collar that he had worn when killed. It has queer markings on it. She studies the lines carefully, but can make no headway. Storm is formally charged with the murder. She reaches the courtroom just in time to say, "Stop, he is not guilty...," and falls into a faint. Hassam Ali and Burns, a confederate, watch as the girl recovers and explains that she has solved the mystery. Burns is placing a revolver, equipped with a silencer against her neck, when she turns suddenly and takes a pencil from his pocket to prove her contention to the court. She realizes, in looking at the mark, that there is a similarity between the markings of Burns' pencil and the markings on the collar. Court is adjourned. Zudora induces Burns to accompany her home. Under hypnosis he confesses to killing Bienreith. Zudora had placed two lawyers behind the curtains and they hear the confession. Zudora has solved her first case and Hassam Ali congratulates her. In the courtroom Zudora clasps Storm in her arms as the judge proclaims him free.
- DirectorHowell HanselStarsFlorence La BadieMarguerite SnowJames CruzeThis twenty-three episode serial told the story of a secret society called The Black Hundred and its attempts to gain control of a lost million dollars.
- DirectorWilfred LucasHenry MacRaeStarsCleo MadisonGeorge LarkinEdward SlomanA crippled old man and his daughter plot to kill a young man they mistakenly believe was responsible for the man's injury. Matters get complicated when his other daughter, who is a twin, falls in love with the intended victim.
- DirectorRobert Z. LeonardStarsRobert Z. LeonardElla HallHarry CarterEpisode 1: "Gold Madness" Two mining prospectors. James Gallon and his partner, Wilkerson, in a temporary camp, have been searching for gold. Gallon has made a lucky strike and has tried to conceal the fact from Wilkerson, who already suspects his partner is not giving him a square deal. The partners are sitting around the campfire one evening when suddenly Wilkerson becomes thirsty. After taking innumerable drinks of water, he falls asleep. Gallon walks off some distance from the sleeper and starts drawing the plans of his great find, but every now and again he furtively turns his eyes in the direction of Wilkerson, fearing he may awaken and discover his secret. Wilkerson awakens, observes Gallon and wonders what he is doing. Quietly he crawls on his hands and knees until he can peer over Gallon's shoulder; and in his eagerness to see he accidentally touches him. Gallon discovers Wilkerson is looking at him, and starts running away, with Wilkerson in pursuit. Gallon grabs his gun, turns and fires at Wilkerson. A terrific fight follows. Gallon leaves Wilkerson apparently dead. Gallon, after hours of wandering, reaches the small mining town of Jacito. A stranger takes him to the sheriff's office. Gallon tells the sheriff he and his partner were attacked by outlaws and his partner was killed. The sheriff, accompanied by his deputy and Gallon, goes toward the saloon and calls for volunteers. A crowd soon collects. Out of the saloon comes a half drunken boy, who cries, "I'm game," jumps on a horse, and the posse are off. As they gallop up the hill, the drunken boy is thrown to the ground when his horse stumbles. The others ride on. The boy lies dazed. His horse gets upon its feet and whinnies. "Who's coming?" mutters the boy. Through the brush he distinguishes a faint form; it is a man. Could this be one of the outlaws? He wonders. He pulls his revolver. "I'm Wilkerson." replies the voice. Wilkerson confides his story to the boy and asks his help. The boy consents and the two go slowly on. At the camp, the sheriff and deputy find no one. The sheriff returns and orders Gallon's arrest. The boys bind him. Evening comes on the posse camp, leaving Gallon tied by the fire. A cowboy is left on watch. In time the watcher falls asleep. Gallon manages to sever his bonds by holding his hands over the fire. He manages to get to a horse and escape. The posse pursue him. Gallon has reached the thick brush, and when he knows he is safe he lies down and takes out the plans he had drawn, also a picture of a twelve-year-old girl, his only daughter, Ruth, and with that picture clasped tightly to his heart he falls asleep, muttering, "I'll save 'The Master Key' for Ruth." Fearing to return to the scene of his supposed crime, Gallon leaves San Francisco by ship for his home. Visions of Wilkerson appear before him. His conscience is troubled. Shortly after boarding the ship, he finds an old sea chest, which he opens. He takes out a curious Japanese idol. In the head of this he hides the plan to his mine. The captain of the vessel is a brute. Once out to sea a mutiny ensues, during which the ship catches fire. Shortly after it sinks, Gallon is washed ashore. Realizing he has nothing to indicate the location of the disaster, he engraves the approximate longitude and latitude where the ship went down on the key to the chest, known afterward as "The Master Key." Later, he is rescued and returns home, where he meets his daughter, Ruth. Five years ensue. Gallon returns to the mines, which he begins developing. He keeps a diary, and in this writes a notation to the effect that he has been seeking for the secret of his lost plans. About this time Gallon writes to a New York stock broker, named Gates, asking him for advice relative to floating "The Master Key" mines. On the day Gates receives Gallon's letter, John Dore, a young mining engineer, calls upon the former and is engaged as consulting and construction engineer for Gallon. He goes West to take up his work. Here he meets Gallon's daughter. Gallon takes his diary from his safe and writes: "This day has been a repetition of all those gone before for the past five years. I am still seeking for the secret of my lost plans. I had not yet discovered" Episode 2: "A Ship Wreck and Wrecked Hopes" Many a man writes down on paper the things he cannot articulate. James Gallon, dreaming of two women, taciturn and silent as he was, wrote down the thoughts which he could not express in speech. His diary, well thumbed, held the history of many a lonely night, but of all these nights there was one that stood out in his mind. It was the darkness enclosing a woman on a bed. He still heard her whispered cry, "You speak of God, Tom, but I have no religion but motherhood." Before his closed eyes came the vision of a lamp lit, then almost an apparition, the face of his daughter. One life had fled, possibly appalled by the horrors of a world that reeks not of our poor humanity. Yet there was in the dead woman's arms a child grotesquely asleep, as if unawakened mother had known. "Ruth," he cried. There was no answer from in the darkness, but thus he had christened his only child. And Gallon knew he was getting old. The problem before him was no longer dim and vague, as it had been in the days of his prime, but absolutely distinct and clear. What was to become of Ruth when he died. He sternly put out of his mind the thought of his former partner, the man, was he dead? If he had not died that night in the gulch, if he were still alive, knowing the secret of "The Master Key," who could save Ruth from his vengeance? Then there rose before Gallon's mind the straight, strong, almost austere figure of his mining engineer, John Dore. Youthful, of course, but he had proved himself wholly competent in almost every task that had been given him. And as though Fate desired to give further proof of Dore's manliness, she arranges for him, shortly after this, a fearful undertaking. Ruth, while exploring the tunnels, is thrown into an ore car by a terrific explosion. This explosion sends the car on its downward flight out through the tunnel and over the trestle. She is in danger of tragic death if the car goes over the dump at the end. Dore, superintending the operations of a traveling bucket, sees her predicament. He orders the bucket swung loose by its cable and, hanging down by his legs, he swings over the girl and pulls her up to him, the car rushing on and smashing over the ore dump. But what of Gallon? Those whom we most want to forget reappear at strange times. James Gallon saw the ghost of the partner he had murdered on the crest of the hill above the mine they had discovered years ago together. Yes, Wilkerson, the partner, was alive. He had continually searched for Gallon. In some vague way Gallon had realized this, and his fears had been summarized by the words written down in the diary: "Wilkerson still alive by night. When will he come into the day? He shall never have the key that will unlock the secret to my little girl's happiness. I will trust John Dore." But it was no apparition that Gallon had seen, first on the crest of the hill and men at the window; it was really Wilkerson who, after one satisfied glance, rode swiftly away toward Valle Vista. It was midnight when he rapped at the door of the railroad station and called the sleepy agent waiting for the express. This is the telegram he sent: "Valle Vista, Cal. Jean Darnell, Astor House, New York City, N.Y: Have found Gallon at last. Address Master Key Mine to-morrow. Wilkerson." Who was Jean Darnell? Well, she had a mission of vengeance, too. Incidentally, she welcomed money. Wilkerson had to have it if he ever expected to possess her. When Ruth came to make her fight, with the help of her sweetheart, John Dore, she had two crafty persons to deal with. Episode 3: "The Ghost Appears" Hounded by Wilkerson, Gallon is made to realize that his former partner is a real being and not an apparition. It is this knowledge which breaks the spirit of Gallon and prepares him for death. Wilkerson compels Gallon to employ him as superintendent of the mine. It is the last straw; Gallon sinks fast, and as his life is about to flicker out, his daughter, John Dore and the old cook are gathered in the death-room. Supported in Ruth's arms, Gallon writes his last will. It reads: "I leave all my property to my daughter Ruth, to come into her full possession on her eighteenth birthday. I direct her never to let go of 'The Master Key,' which will make my little girl happy. I direct that my daughter keep Harry Wilkerson as superintendent until she is eighteen. I appoint as executor or this, my last will and testament, John Dore." When Gallon dies Dore finds in the desk a sealed envelope, addressed to him, which reads: "To be opened on Ruth's eighteenth birthday, sooner if her welfare is threatened." It is hard for Dore and Ruth to appreciate all that has and is happening; much of it is a mystery to them. Vaguely they realize that Gallon had a dread of Wilkerson, that he had evidently wronged him, and that Wilkerson, in his turn, has a mission of vengeance. At the "Master Key" mine matters come to a critical point when Wilkerson, now in full charge, posts a notice to the effect that "After this day all wages in this mine will be reduced 25 per cent." The man is after money, as much of it as he can get. He also sees that Dore is a stumbling block to his schemes. Of an afternoon Dore interferes when Wilkerson knocks a miner down. It is the excuse for Wilkerson firing him as the mine engineer. Following this move, the miners decide to strike. Wilkerson's domineering manner has earned the dislike of every one of them. There is a fight in the office between Wilkerson and an old miner. The former draws a gun, and is only prevented from shooting the miner by the timely appearance of Dore. But the incident is sufficient excuse for the rough miners to seek Wilkerson's life. They secure a rope and prepare to lynch him. Because of Ruth, because he cannot see murder done even in the heat of passion, Dore goes to the defense of the cornered rat. Standing on a box, he tells the miners in a few brief words the exact situation so far as he is concerned, begs them not to risk Ruth's property. For a time the men listen, and then they seem to get out of hand. Ruth climbs onto the box beside her sweetheart and joins her own appeal with his. And this proves successful, so far as the life of Wilkerson is concerned. But the strike; it must be ended. Wilkerson realized this if he hoped to continue the mine operations and secure money, his life would be threatened at any moment so long as the strike lasted. It is a bitter draught to swallow, but Wilkerson announces to the men that the former scale of wages will be again put in force, and that John Dore will be appointed superintendent of the mine. He is ready to bide his time for revenge. Episode 4: "Over the Divide" With his miners still hostile, Wilkerson realizes that he must get Dore out of the way, if only temporarily. Inasmuch as Dore has saved Wilkerson's life, thus preventing him from openly assaulting him, the scheming executor of Ruth Gallon's will plans to induce Dore to go to San Francisco. Accordingly he alters the books of "The Master Key" mine to make it appear that unless more capital is secured at once the mine will go into bankruptcy. Wilkerson suggests that Dore leave at once, but Ruth's protector scents another conspiracy, and arranges that Ruth, instead of himself, shall make the trip to secure more capital. Wilkerson, who plans to oust both Ruth, the rightful heir to "The Master Key" mine, and Dore, accepts Dore's counter proposition with bad grace. Making the most of the opportunity to rid himself of one of the obstacles to the success of his schemes, however, Wilkerson consents to Ruth's visiting San Francisco in Dore's place. Upon Ruth's departure Wilkerson wires Mrs. Darnell, an old flame, to introduce Ruth to a 'Frisco confidence man, Charles Drake, as the Mr. Everett with whom she is to make arrangements for securing further capital for the financing of the mine. Drake is instructed to gain control of the deeds which Ruth takes to San Francisco with her. Ruth, all unsuspecting of the net into which she is being drawn, is introduced to Drake, and entrusts him with the sending of a telegram to Dore, telling the young mine superintendent of her safe arrival in San Francisco. Drake sends the telegram after making himself acquainted with its contents. Dore, back at his mine, receives Ruth's telegram at the same time he is handed another puzzling wire from the real Mr. Everett, which reads: "Miss Gallon has not arrived; what is the trouble?" Upon comparing Ruth's telegram, which assures him that she has "met Mr. Everett at depot," Dore instantly realizes that something is amiss, and decides to leave for San Francisco at once to straighten out the matter. Hearing of Dore's plan to leave, Wilkerson resolves to prevent his departure at all costs. For several hours he considers several plans, and finally decides upon one which he hopes will rid him for all time of the young mining engineer. During the night he withdraws a pin from the brake on the rear wheel of the motor truck which Dore will use next day in making the journey from the mine to the railroad station. A half hour before Dore leaves Wilkerson rides ahead and fires the bridge at the foot of a steep decline down which Dore's truck must come. The bridge is hidden by a bend in the road, and the driver of Dore's truck fails to see the steadily mounting flames until he is halfway down the side of the steep hill. He at once applies the brakes to the truck, but the pin which Wilkerson has removed prevents the brakes from working, and the car soon attains a terrific momentum. Bounding from side to side of the narrow mountain roadway, the driver of the machine has great difficulty from preventing the truck from leaping the trail. Realizing that death awaits him when the truck strikes the blazing timbers of the bridge, the driver jumps for his life into a ditch alongside the road. Dore, anticipating the driver's desertion, springs to the steering wheel of the truck just in time to prevent it from overturning. He applies the brakes frantically in an attempt to control the runaway car, but with no success. With the flames of the bridge already beating in his face, Dore jumps at the last moment from the car, rolls down the hillside, and hangs unconscious over the edge of the canyon, into which the massive motor truck plunges through the rotten timbers of the blazing plank bridge. The heat from the burning structure and the crackling of flames in nearby bushes and mountain grass brings Dore to semi-consciousness and a realization of his danger. Painfully crawling away from the canyon's edge to a bare rock where the flames cannot reach him, he again falls unconscious from his injuries. Wilkerson, meanwhile, has reached the station, and catches the local for San Francisco, believing that Dore has plunged into the depth of the canyon. Episode 5: "The Lost Vein" At the conclusion of the fourth episode Dore barely saved himself from plunging through a blazing bridge into the depths of the canyon. The introduction of the fifth episode of the serial shows Tom Kane cook of "The Master Key" mine, coming to the rescue of Dore as he lies half-conscious on the brink of the precipice. Wilkerson, who set fire to the bridge, meanwhile, is on his way toward San Francisco. En route he sends a telegram to Drake and the latter meets him at the station. Mrs. Darnell, Drake and Ruth are registered at the Manx Hotel, the adventuress and confidence man passing off the pretty young woman as their daughter. Upon arriving at the hotel Drake, Wilkerson and Mrs. Darnell discuss their plan to secure control of "The Master Key" mine. Ruth, secreted in her room, overhears the conversation and learns for the first time that she has been trapped by her dead father's enemies. In order to prevent the conspirators from securing the deeds to "The Master Key" mine, Ruth locks them in a dresser drawer and puts the key in her grip. The conspirators enter Ruth's room soon afterward and, realizing that she has been listening, seize her. In the struggle Ruth faints and the conspirators decide to get her out of the hotel at once. They 'phone for a taxi, bundle Ruth up and rush her downstairs through the lobby of the hotel to the taxi only stopping long enough to pay their bill. The hotel clerk and house detective think the hurried departure strange, and try to stop Drake and Mrs. Darnell. Failing in this they give chase in another taxicab. The pursuit brings them to Chinatown, where they arrive in time to see Wilkerson force Ruth into an opium den owned by Sing Wah, a former opium smuggler. Dore meanwhile arrives in San Francisco, and goes to the Manx Hotel. The only suite vacant is that just given up by the conspirators. Dore unpacks his personal effects in the room from which Ruth has just been hurried away. One of the dresser drawers is locked and Dore sends for a key. The drawer is opened and, to his surprise, the young mining engineer finds deeds to "The Master Key" mine within. Episode 6: "Wilkerson Strikes" Dore learns from the hotel authorities of the mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Darnell and her companions. Aided by the hotel detective they find the taxi driver who drove the party and direct him to take them to the place where he drove the others. An immediate search of Chinatown is begun. By accident Dore sees Drake enter a Chinese shop. Meanwhile, Mrs. Darnell and Wilkerson have discovered that the deeds to the mine are not in Ruth's grip, as they supposed. Believing that Ruth has them they send Drake to win her confidence and thus secure them. When he enters the shop Dore, the detective and the taxi driver follow. They see him disappear through a panel door and hurry out for police assistance. In the interim, Sing Wah, the Chinese, has decided to hold Ruth for his own purpose. When Drake comes for her, he escapes from the cylindrical trap room and takes her down to the bay, with the intention of carrying her to a safe hiding place. Dore and the detective with police assistance return quickly, and a general raid on the opium den is made. Drake evades the police. He does not meet Dore but escapes and returns to the lodging house, where he reports his failure to secure the papers. Dore and the detective are trapped in the cylindrical room by a Chinese woman who had previously guarded Ruth. Dore is slightly injured, and in the excitement of the moment the woman pulls a trap and drops the mining engineer and the detective into the water underneath the den. They swim to a rowboat and thus pass through the underground canal into the bay. They come upon Sing Wah with Ruth and an exciting chase follows, ending with the rescue of Ruth. Episode 7: "The Battle in the Dark" Dore secures a room for Ruth in the same hotel where he is stopping in San Francisco and borrows some clothing for her, pending a trip to the shopping district. In order to take her mind off her experience, Dore takes Ruth on a trip to Cliff House. The trip and accompanying dinner take the greater part of the evening and upon her return Ruth goes down the hall into her room. Dore is inserting the key into the lock of his room down the hall when he hears Ruth scream. Running into her room he sees a figure crawling out on the fire escape. In their absence Wilkerson, by bribes and threats of exposure, has engaged Sam Pell, an ex-second story man and hotel worker, to make a further attempt to recover the deeds of "The Master Key" mine. Pell, by following Dore and Ruth, has learned their room number. He had about completed his night's work when Ruth and Dore returned and interrupted him. Dore fiercely pursued the second-story worker across the roof of the hotel, cornering him behind the great chimneys. Ruth, following closely after, witnesses the struggle between the two men. Pell has about overcome Dore when another figure crawls up the fire escape. It is Tom Kane, who has returned to San Francisco to report to Dore the distress among the miners of "The Master Key" workings. Tom immediately turns the tide of battle by drawing a gun on Pell. The slippery second-story man, however, eludes both Dore and Kane. Just as he reaches the edge of the roof, Dore again catches him and throws him so heavily that the criminal falls over the roof to the street below and is killed. Unnoticed by Dore, Kane or Ruth, Pell had skillfully thrown the deeds down the inner "well" of the hotel. Upon the arrival of hotel employees and the police, Pell's body is searched but no trace of the deeds is obtained. The police recognize Pell as an old criminal, and Dore's story is accepted without question. After a short investigation the police permit Dore and Ruth to leave. Kane assures Ruth that things are "going along fine" at the mine but secretly admits to Dore that the men are out of work and that there is extreme suffering among them. Wilkerson's man, Tubbs, has discharged Kane and taken things at the mine into his own hands. Dore at once realizes that something must be done to prevent Wilkerson from ruining the property through his hirelings. Episode 8: "The Struggle on the Roof" As a matter of form, John Dore is arrested for the death of Pell. Everett goes with him to arrange for his release on bail. Ruth is left in the care of Tom Kane. Kane tells her that the miners are out of work and threatened with starvation. Ruth listens sympathetically as Kane tells her how he opened the cook house to the wives of the miners and supplied them with food. She is pleased to learn that when the engineer interfered he was only saved from being mobbed by Kane, although Kane could not stop the miners from running the engineer out of camp. These events, Kane explains, made him resolve to go to John and Ruth to obtain their assistance in raising funds to help the starving people. Wilkerson and Mrs. Darnell learn of the death of Pell and decide to forge a note, supposedly from Dore, asking Ruth to visit him at the jail. Drake, disguised as a chauffeur, takes the note and after getting Ruth in the cab is to take her to a deserted part of town, where Wilkerson will meet him and thus secure the deeds. Ruth shows the note to Kane. The old miner is suspicious and when she leaves he accompanies her. When the cab stops, Wilkerson appears and threatens Ruth, but Kane defeats their purpose and has Drake arrested for attempted abduction. Wilkerson escapes. In the meantime, an ashman cleaning in the alley at the rear of the hotel, finds the deeds and takes them home. He advertises his find, and Wilkerson, seeing the "ad," compels the maid to disguise and go for the papers. The ashman is suspicious at first, but after she offers him a sum of money, he forgets his scruples and delivers them to her. Dore is released on bail and coming to the hotel finds Ruth has gone. The clerk informs him of her departure and shows Dore the note she had received. He is immediately suspicious. While he is deciding on a plan of action, Ruth and Kane come in and tell of their experiences. Everett is nearby reading the papers, when he suddenly shows them the ashman's advertisement. All go to the address mentioned in the advertisement, but find that Wilkerson's emissary has forestalled them. Ruth breaks down and the doctor advises them to take her to the southern part of the state for a change of climate. Wilkerson, Mrs. Darnell and the maid have all disguised themselves and secured tickets to Los Angeles via boat. They get aboard safely and find that Dore. Ruth and their party are on the same boat. Ruth's party, however, do not recognize Wilkerson and Mrs. Darnell on account of their disguises. Episode 9: "Arrested for Murder" John Dore, Tom Kane and Ruth Gallon arrives in Los Angeles from San Francisco and go to the Beverly Hills Hotel for a few days' rest. Harry Wilkerson and Mrs. Darnell also arrive in the city and discover that the deeds to the Master Key Mine, which they secured from the ashman in San Francisco, are worthless to them because no conveyance of the property has been made out. Wilkerson forgets this and they then take steps to seize the mine. Wilkerson wires Drake in San Francisco to go to Silent Valley and represent him there until further notice. He also sends word to the engineer at the mine that Dore is no longer in the company's employ and to recognize the authority of Drake until he can reach the property. At the Beverley Hills Hotel, Ruth meets a young Englishman, heir to a title, who is somewhat of a fortune seeker. He is a new type to her and his breeding and sartorial good taste makes an impression on the young girl. She is not infatuated although John Dore is led to believe that she is, and as a consequence a slight coldness arises between them which neither can explain to the other. Everett follows them from San Francisco to continue his work of raising money to develop the mine, but shows them that he can do nothing unless they secure the deeds of ownership. They, therefore, begin tracking Wilkerson and Mrs. Darnell. With a few hundred dollars, which Everett has loaned Dore, the latter repays his debt to Tom Kane and sends him to Silent Valley to care for the starving miners. Kane finds the mine in the possession of Drake. Kane wires Dore, who leaves at once for Los Angeles with Ruth, arriving at the mine the next day. An open war follows, Wilkerson hurrying to the scene of action on hearing from Drake that trouble is brewing. Without any trouble Dore drives off the intruders and prepares for further attacks. Wilkerson returns with a band of Mexicans from the southern part of the state and opens on Dore and his followers. Many miners and Mexicans are killed in the battle which rages all over the property. Ruth has a narrow escape but is again saved by Dore. In a hand-to-hand fight Wilkerson is thrown from a high trestle down the side of an ore dump. Dore fears that he has killed Wilkerson but in the gathering darkness cannot make sure. Episode 10: "The Fight for the Mine" At the end of Episode Nine of this serial it will be remembered that John Dore throws Wilkerson from a high trestle to the foot of an ore dump near the mine. Wilkerson, although fearfully bruised, revives and drags himself to a spot where he is found by his Mexican hirelings. The Governor of the State, upon the request of the local sheriff, sends a troop of state cavalry to quell the disturbance at the mine. The captain of the company sends for the two leaders and demands an explanation. Both claim ownership of the mine, Dore on behalf of Ruth and Wilkerson for himself. The officer places the camp under martial law and gives the opposing leaders the liberty of the village. Dore accuses Wilkerson of abduction and forgery, but the captain and the sheriff are officially powerless to make an arrest. Dore thereupon sends Tom Kane to the nearest county seat to swear out a warrant for Wilkerson's arrest. Dore lives meanwhile at his own house and Ruth in her old home where she is chaperoned by one of the miner's wives. Wilkerson bunks in one of the miner's cabins. Dore thinks the situation is serious enough to warrant his opening a letter left in his care by Tom Gallon which was to be opened on Ruth's eighteenth birthday or prior to that date should her welfare be threatened. Dore opens the letter which reads as follows: "Silent Valley, Cal., June 20, 1914. Little Girl, read carefully what I now write. On this depends your future welfare. The Master Key mine discovered by me five years ago contains a mother lode of inestimable worth. The exact location of the lode is written on a slip of paper which I placed in the head of an Indian idol, hidden in an old sea chest which sank on the ship on which I was wrecked. On the Master Key, the key to that chest which you wear on your neck, is carved the latitude and longitude where the vessel went down. Find that slip of paper and wealth is yours. Your devoted daddy, JOHN GALLON." In opening the letter with a paper knife, Dore accidentally cuts the letter into two parts. He pieces it together in reading it but in putting the letter into his pocket a part containing the last paragraph drops on the floor. One of Wilkerson's henchmen, who has been instructed to shadow Dore, sees this through the window and when Dore goes out, enters the house and picks up the paper. The Mexican hurries with this part of the letter to Wilkerson and the latter, who always realized that the mine was not located correctly, is elated at the discovery. His next move is to get the key from Ruth. Dore starts to read the letter to Ruth and discovers that half of it is gone. Although he makes a careful search he fails to find it. Dore tells Ruth what the letter contained and copies from the key she wears the numerals so crudely carved by her father five years before and which always have been a puzzle to her. That night the "greaser" steals the key from Ruth's neck and takes it to Wilkerson. Wilkerson leaves camp at once but is pursued to the mine entrance and its caverns by Dore's men. Eluding his pursuers he escapes through the caverns of the mine through a secret opening at the back of the cliff. With a rope he drops over the ledge and lowers himself downward. The soldiers seize the rope and are about to haul Wilkerson up when he drops, lands unscathed in a bush and hurries away. Jumping a freight, he lands in San Diego, secures the services of a diver, wires Mrs. Darnell to join him and then sets out for the sunken ship. Dore, meanwhile, leaves for San Pedro with Ruth, leaving word for Kane to remain in charge of affairs at the mine. At the port of Los Angeles, Dore secures a boat and diver with a hoisting apparatus. Dore and Wilkerson approach the latitude and longitude indicated on "The Master Key" at about the same time. Wilkerson's diver is already down on the sea bottom when Dore's diver puts on his harness and sinks into the waves. Wilkerson's party attempts to prevent the diver from going to work, but Dore and his men hold them back with their rifles and revolvers. Wilkerson's diver finds the chest and it is hauled upward just as Dore's diver crawls along the sea bottom toward him. Episode 11: "The Secret of the Chest" It will be remembered that Wilkerson and Dore are both striving to recover the secret to the rich lode of ore in the mine, which secret is contained in a sea-chest, which Wilkerson has recovered from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Wilkerson's ship continues toward land, and he at once forces the chest open and makes a search for the paper, from which he hopes to learn the secret of "The Master Key"' mine. He fails to find any such slip, but does find the Indian idol, which he casts aside with the other contents as being worthless. Meantime, Dore's boat, which has been pursuing Wilkerson's vessel, reaches shore. Mrs. Darnell upbraids Wilkerson for his seeming stupidity, and another quarrel between them ensues. Members of the crew examine the seemingly worthless contents of the chest, and one of the sailors appropriates the idol among other articles, with a view to selling them in port. Upon arriving in San Diego, Mrs. Darnell goes to a hotel, while Wilkerson remains to pay off the captain and crew. Dore's boat puts into dock, and with the captain and Ruth, he hastens to find Wilkerson and the mysterious idol. In the interim, the sailor, with his idol, goes ashore and seeks out a pawnshop where he may sell his treasures. On the arrival of Dore and Ruth at Wilkerson's boat another altercation ensues between the two enemies, the respective sea captains interfering. Wilkerson gives Dore the laugh, but the latter at once realizes that Harry Wilkerson has not found the papers. Wilkerson goes into town to cash a check with which to pay off the captain. Dore thereupon questions the latter regarding the idol and is referred to members of the crew. He learns that one of the sailors had taken some of the articles in the chest, and search is at once continued. Wilkerson returns to the ship with the cash, and from the captain learns of Dore's inquiry. Thus Wilkerson realizes that he has missed the clue to his search. He goes ashore to shadow Dore. A Hindu peddler visits the pawnshop to sell his wares, consisting of a few Oriental rugs. In the shop he sees the idol, recognizes it and hastens to his squalid quarters, where he holds it close to him in a pathetic manner. As he gazes at the little image it seems to dissolve from view, and a series of pictures of the past appears. The Hindu sees himself as a watcher in a temple. A sailor enters the sacred confines and watches him roam about. He sees him standing before a sacred shrine. The Hindu turns from the visitor and takes up his religious duties where he had left off when he first saw the visitor. Later he notices that the sailor is gone, and, on walking to the shrine, in the performance of a sacred rite, he finds that one of the idols is gone. He immediately commences a search for it and, recalling the incident of the sailor, he runs forth and gives an alarm. He is severely censured by the high priest and is sent forth to find the idol. He visits the wharves and when boarding one of the ships he peers through a porthole and in a cabin sees the sailor gloating over the idol. He moves nearer and the sailor, seeing him, thrusts the idol into his chest and closes the lid. Other sailors come along the dock and question the Hindu. The first sailor comes from his cabin and joins the party. Realizing that the Hindu is searching for the idol, the sailor tells his comrades to throw him overboard. The Hindu is thereupon seized and thrown into the water. He swims ashore and, on being unable to board the ship again, is forced to watch her as she sails away. He returns to the temple and is told that he is banished until he returns with the sacred image. He returns to the wharves and boards another vessel. The Hindu's vision then closes and Ruth and Dore are seen to enter the pawnshop with Wilkerson following close behind, although they are unaware of it. Ruth and Dore question the shopkeeper closely, but the latter evades their queries. Episode 12: "The Quest for the Idol" It will be remembered that in the eleventh episode of "The Master Key" that a Hindu peddler, visiting a pawnshop to sell his wares, consisting of a few Oriental rugs, sees the idol, recognizes it as one which was stolen from him in India years before, and immediately purchases it. The idol has a long history, of which Dore and Ruth know nothing. Upon tracing it to the pawnshop, however, they learn that the Hindu has forestalled them, and that the idol is gone. Wilkerson, also searching for the valuable little idol, which he has permitted to slip through his fingers, trails Ruth and Dore. The pawnbroker tells Ruth and Dore of the strange Hindu to whom he sold it. Dore decides that the oriental is likely to return to India with it, and through the captain of the steamer he traces the Hindu to a ship bound for the Orient. Everett again assists them with money for the voyage. Sir Donald Faversham, learning that Ruth is in Los Angeles, calls on her to renew their friendship, and, learning that they are going to the Orient, he offers his services, he having been previously stationed in India as a British officer. In passing through the streets Ruth's sympathy is aroused in the interest of a poor beggar who is being tormented by the natives, and she goes to his rescue. Later this native proves his gratitude to her. A former servant of Sir Donald is engaged to assist them, and in the guise of natives they visit the temple, after having found where the sacred image has been hidden. In attempting to steal it Dore is captured. Sir Donald returns to Ruth with the news. She begs him to assist Dore to escape, and the Englishman offers to do so on condition that Ruth will promise to marry him if he succeeds. Torn between conflicting emotions, Ruth forces herself to accept the proposition. Sir Donald thereupon secures the services of other former troopers, and with his old servant he rescues Dore after a desperate struggle, in which Hindus and soldiers take part. Episode 13: "A Queer Alliance" Episode Thirteen opens with the same balcony scene which closed Episode Twelve. Ruth and Sir Donald are seen together. Sir Donald makes it plain that he feels much satisfaction at having rescued Dore and forces things to a point where Ruth must live up to her promise to marry him. Dore sees the exchange of glances between Sir Donald and Ruth and is much perplexed. Meanwhile there is much confusion in the temple. The high priest, angered at the desecration of the Temple by Sir Donald's Hindus, calls for vengeance. They start out to make a tour of the European hotels in their efforts to find Dore and Sir Donald. Ruth is bathing Dora's wound and Sir Donald is outside smoking when the Hindus come up the street. Wilkerson and Drake see the mob approaching the square yelling excitedly. The native police are quite unable to quiet the mob. Sir Donald is warned by a Hindu servant of his danger. He goes into the room where Ruth is attending to Dore and seizes her by the wrist. Ruth breaks from him and flees with Dore, who straps on his revolver. The mob arrives as they descend and bombards the hotel with stones. The porter of the hotel, fearing the vengeance of the high priests, opens the gates and permits the mob to enter. Meanwhile Dore, Ruth and Sir Donald, guided by a servant, dart into a side passage, which leads into a walled court. Ruth recognizes among the crowd of beggars in the courtyard the one she befriended some time previously. While the mob is besieging the front gates the beggar tells Ruth to get into a basket nearby. The beggar then closes the lid and opens a door leading down into a cellar. Dore and Sir Donald follow into the cellar and the beggar closes the door upon them. The mob then surges into the court. The beggar leads them into a blind passage. Meanwhile he hurries Ruth, Dore and Sir Donald into vegetable carts and covers them with rugs. Other beggars then run off with the two-wheeled carts through another passage just as the mob, seeing that they have been tricked, runs back into the court. The mob searches the cellar thoroughly but fails to find the Europeans. Ruth, Dore and Sir Donald are meanwhile wheeled off in safety while the police scatter the mob. His vengeance frustrated, the high priest decides to send the idol to a distant temple for safe keeping. The idol is wrapped up and the high priest with his acolytes engage eight donkeys and start inland with the precious idol. Ruth, Dore and Sir Donald are well taken care of by the beggars meanwhile. Through the English papers Wilkerson, Mrs. Darnell and Drake learn of the riot among the natives in Calcutta and of the attempted stealing of an idol. Drake suggests bribing their guide to find out where the idol is being taken by the priests of the temple. The scheme works and the bribed guide returns with the information regarding the destination of the priests and the idol. Wilkerson follows the high priests, with the Hindu for a guide, and engages a number of English sailors and roustabouts to waylay the party and to secure the idol. They surround the camp of the priests. The sailors and roughs kill all the priests in a hand to band fight. When they have finished Wilkerson and Drake search the mule packs. The idol is soon found. When the eye of the idol is removed the plan of "The Master Key" mine is seen to be within. Wilkerson withdraws and examines them carefully. He then secretes the plans in his bosom. The last scene of the episode shows Ruth snuggled closely against Dore waiting for the dawn to come. Ruth is uneasy, although she does not know why, and seems to sense that something has gone wrong. Episode 14: "The God Takes All" After spending the night in the camp of the beggars, Ruth, Dore and Sir Donald are given a hearty breakfast. Wilkerson has, meanwhile, decided to keep the idol and he and Drake, with their men, continue on their way back to the city. In the hills they become lost and take refuge in a deserted hut. The lone priest, who escaped from Wilkerson and his men, come upon a band of wandering hillmen and relate to them the story of the stealing of the idol and the murder of his comrades. The hillmen start out to avenge the deed. Dore places Ruth in the care of the American Consul, where Sir Donald also remains, while he goes into the hills to endeavor to find the elusive idol. Aided by his faithful Indian friends, he arrives in the hills where he is seen by the aroused Hindus. They pursue him to the deserted hut, where he comes unexpectedly upon Wilkerson. It is a case of race against race, and thus the two enemies are forced to bury the hatchet for the time being and fight side by side to save their lives. The hillmen are driven off, and Dore returns to the hut with Wilkerson and Drake. Ruth has been entertained at the consulate during Dore's absence, a small reception and dance being given. She meets a young American naval officer who later proves a connecting human link in her life of many experiences. After the guests have departed and she goes to the balcony overlooking the market square below her, she has a vision of Dore in trouble and her woman's intuition tells her he needs help, and at once. Episode 15: "Fate Unlocks the Doors" Ruth, feeling more forcibly the danger that John Dore is in, hastens into the house to prepare to go with him. She is met by the Consul's wife, who tries to persuade her to do nothing so rash, but neither her words nor those of the consul are of any avail. While he is dressing to go out with her, the girl slips from the house and makes her way to the walled court where her beggar friends spends his nights. She arouses him and with his guidance hurries to the waterfront in hopes of finding the young naval officer she met at the dance. The hillmen have, meantime, renewed their attack upon Wilkerson and Dore, and the former, realizing that he will lose his life unless he can escape from the hut, leaves Dore bound to the chair to which he has tied him shortly after their return to the hut. Dore's remaining followers are set upon by Wilkerson's ruffians, the Hindu servant alone getting away. Ruth arouses the naval officer who comes to her aid with a squad of his marines. The British frontier troops have also been aroused by the continued firing and hasten to quell the disturbance. The Hindu servant meets Ruth and the officer on the road and guides them to the cabin, which has been set on fire by the hillmen. Wilkerson and Drake make a getaway and Dore is rescued by Ruth and her new friends. On their return to the city Dore learns that Wilkerson, Mrs. Darnell and Drake have sailed for America, carrying with them the secret to the mine. He cables Tom Kane at Silent Valley to arrest them on their arrival. This is done, and when Dore, Ruth and Sir Donald get back a consultation is held. It is decided not to prosecute Wilkerson and his allies in return for their giving up the plan to the mine. Wilkerson complies, but substitutes a false set of drawings. Dore, with Everett back of him, continues operations. Wilkerson proceeds to seek for the hidden gold at the spot near the original diggings. In a premature explosion he is killed. Dore finds on his body the real plans. Drake and Mrs. Darnell are apprehended for their part in this trickery. Sir Donald releases Ruth from her promise to marry him, and the story closes with a happy meeting between John and Ruth. END
- DirectorArthur V. JohnsonStarsArthur V. JohnsonLottie BriscoeFlorence HackettIn Chapter 8, "A Partner To Providence", His lordship rides a train that is mistakenly rerouted into a headlong collision into another engine, with the well-worn Lubin train crash footage ensuing. He's pulled out of the wreck and recuperates with a rural family. He recuperates enough to win a fight with a crook at the end.
- DirectorFrancis FordStarsGrace CunardFrancis FordHarry SchummEpisode 1: Hugo Loubeque and Sumpter Love are cadets at West Point. Both love the same woman. Loubeque is expelled from the institution for theft from his fellow cadets. The principal witness against him is Cadet Love, who, as a result of Loubeque's downfall, wins the woman for the hand of whom both were rivals. Loubeque sets apart his life to avenge himself upon Love. He carefully educates himself to the end of making his revenge more certain and dire. Knowing that Love will someday become an officer in the army, he lays his plans in that direction. He becomes an international spy, a broker in national secrets. He works upon the plan that no country is greater than its smallest secret. After a lapse of many years Love is a general in the U.S. Army, stationed in Manila. He has an only daughter, Lucille, who is engaged to marry Lieutenant Gibson. The butler in the Love household is a cracksman in the employ of Loubeque. After watching the movements of Love for years, Loubeque decides that the time for action has arrived. General Love receives from Washington a set of documents of the utmost diplomatic importance and the contents of which must he kept in the strictest secrecy. As his aide. Lieutenant Gibson locks them in the safe, at the instigation of Loubeque, the butler steals the papers. The honor of General Love is threatened and he informs Gibson to consider himself under arrest until the papers are returned. Lucille takes up a telephone receiver that morning to find that the wires are crossed. She overhears a conversation between Loubeque and his accomplice in which the spy admits that the documents are in his possession, and that he intends leaving Manila on the steamship Empress at once. Lucille decides on the spot that she will regain possession of the documents if she has to follow Loubeque to the ends of the earth. She at once realizes that her only chance of reaching the Empress before it puts well to sea is through the aid of the government aviator, Gibson's rival for her hand. The aviator lends his assistance. She springs into the hydroplane and in a moment later is skipping over the waters in the wake of the Empress. Little does Hugo Loubeque dream that his Nemesis is above his head and ready to land by his side as he contemplates that the last great stroke in his plan of revenge is nearing completion. Episode 2: The second story of this series opens when Lucille deserts the hydroplane in the open ocean and makes a sensational landing upon the steamship. Then, for the first time, Loubeque becomes aware that his program of revenge is being interfered with. The moment he sees the girl he is struck by her resemblance to his first love, who in reality was Lucille's mother. Loubeque 's first move aboard the ship is to have sent out an unsigned wireless message to the effect that General Love and not his aide, proved a traitor by selling the diplomatic secrets. After this message is sent out, and to prevent further communications with the ship, Loubeque disarranges the wireless apparatus. In doing so he causes an explosion in which he is injured. Lucille realizes that her opportunity has arrived, and she volunteers to nurse him. Her services are accepted. She is soon on friendly terms with the international spy, but seek as she will the hiding place of the documents remains a mystery. Fortune, however, favors her. A fierce fire breaks out in the hold of the ship. Lucille is with Loubeque in his stateroom when the impending disaster is announced. With the first shock of the news the spy's first thought is of the valuable documents and his startled glance toward a desk reveals to Lucille the hiding place of the stolen papers. Loubeque leaves the room for an instant, and the next instant Lucille finds the papers and thrusts them in her bosom. The fire in the hold is now burning fiercely, and all hope for the ship is lost. The lifeboats are lowered and the rule of "women first" is adhered to. Realizing that he must desert the ship at once the spy rushes to his cabin only to find the papers gone. He then realizes that his late nurse is no other than Lucille Love, daughter of his deadliest enemy. He rushes to the ship's rail just in time to see the boat in which Lucille is seated, lowered into the angry sea. "Well played. Miss Love," he cries, "but I'm afraid you will have to return the papers." No sooner does Lucille's boat touch the water than it is capsized and all the women occupants are left to the mercy of the waves. The burning ship listing almost to the water's edge, the ocean spotted with the dying and the dead, Lucille grasps a floating timber and clings to it until she loses consciousness. When she regains her senses she finds herself upon a long stretch of beach; a castaway upon one of the South Sea islands. Episode 3: At the opening of the third chapter, Lucille Love is discovered more dead than alive on the beach of the South Sea island where she had been cast by the storm which had wrecked the small boat in which she escaped from the burning liner "Empress." As she regained consciousness she makes sure that she has the papers which she had taken from Loubeque, the return of which will save her father and sweetheart from disgrace. She has them in the bosom of her dress. As she looks about she sees a band of savages and tries to escape. They overtake her and make her captive. The savages, however, seem to consider her a sacred being, and the chief takes her to his hut, where his little daughter is sick, and asks Lucille to cure her. Lucille sets to work and nurses the chief's daughter. She quiets her and makes her comfortable. The chief then assigns a house to her and in the sign language tells her that she will be perfectly safe there. In this hut Lucille for the first time learns the secret of Loubeque's life through reading his diary and seeing the picture of her own mother. When the crisis of the illness of the chief's little daughter is past, and she recovers, the chief is extravagant in his praise, and gives her a sacred amulet, or charm, in the shape of a white elephant. By virtue of his sacred object all the natives become Lucille's slaves. The chief hangs the charm about Lucille's neck, and as a token of service she has rendered she is permitted to ride the holy elephant as a mark of the royal favor, and all the natives bow before her. But Loubeque has escaped the fury of the waves, too, and has been cast up on the same island which is now Lucille's refuge. Loubeque sees the honor which is being conferred upon the girl who has the secret dispatches which she took from the desk in his cabin, and he is filled with hate and determination to get them back. There comes upon the scene at this moment a native of an anarchistic turn of mind, who hates anything which has to do with the white woman. Loubeque sees him and by virtue of their common cause they join forces. Loubeque, however, chokes the savage nearly to death to show him who is master. Together they plot to make away with Lucille. Soon an opportunity offers. Lucille is restless and as she is regarded as a sacred person and can go anywhere without harm, she wanders on the sand dunes. The native, Loubeque's new slave, surprises her and starts to strangle her. In a moment it would have all been over had not the sacred amulet, which the chief had hung about her neck, escaped from her dress and attracted the attention of the savage. The talisman works. He desists and bows three times before her. She is saved. But Loubeque will not be defeated so easily. He plots to drive Lucille out of her hut so that he can search it for the dispatches, and for that purpose he and the native catch snakes and put them through the grass walls of Lucille's hut. Lucille, at course, is terrified and runs out into the night. Loubeque searches the hut, but cannot find the papers and goes away more angry and determined than ever. The girl fears to stay there and resolves to escape through the jungle. She goes to the chief's hut, but decides not to waken him and slips away into the doubly dark shadows of the jungle. But nothing can escape the crafty eye of the spy. He has followed every movement of the girl, who does not even suspect that her enemy is on the island. Loubeque is not the only enemy that Lucille has to contend with. The jungle is full of wild beasts, and she has not gone far before she encounters a ferocious lion. Lucille is horrified and tries desperately to escape. Episode 4: As the fourth installment opens the lion is trying to break down the door of the desperate girl's shelter, and is only foiled by a spear in Lucille's terrified hands. But Loubeque is not so easy to turn from his purpose of recovering the papers, which mean the accomplishment of his revenge and the disgrace of General Love. Be instructs his native slave to collect dry grass and teaches him how to weave a rope. This he stretches from his own hut to Lucille's and ignites the end in his hut. In a short time the fire eats its way to the hut where the daughter of his enemy is asleep. To make assurance doubly sure, Loubeque's native summons the tribe to which he belongs, and which is hostile to that by which Lucille was captured, to assist him. Lucille, scarcely awakened from her sleep, is driven from the hut by the fire and almost runs into the arms of Loubeque. He struggles with her and attempts to seize the papers. But Lucille's savages are at hand and attack the spy before he can recover the papers. The natives, however, are very superstitious and deathly afraid of the "imprisoned fire" in Loubeque's automatic revolver. One shot is enough. The tribe falls down before him in fear and subjection. In the meantime Lucille has made good her escape and has entered the chief's hut. But while the natives are afraid of the white man, they are not afraid of the savages which support him, and a terrible battle ensues between the rival tribes. In order to stop the carnage, Lucille resolves to take advantage of the superstitions of the natives and dresses herself all in white, improvising her garments from sacks and white cloths. Climbing on the great white elephant she goes among the warriors and the fighting ceases like magic. All bow down to the sacred objects, the color white, the sacred elephant and the sacred healing woman. But Loubeque is not discouraged and at this juncture there comes to his assistance an ally in the person of a woman from the tribe to which his slave belongs. After discussing ways and means, Loubeque decides to try a clever bit of deception on Lucille. He sends the woman to the chief, in whose house Lucille is carefully guarded, with instructions to tell the chief that she is from a neighboring tribe which is friendly. She is to say her master lies ill and at the point of death, and that she has heard of the wonderful white healing woman who cured the chief's daughter, and had been sent to get her to heal her master. The ruse succeeds, both the chief and Lucille herself are completely taken in and Lucille starts immediately on horseback with the false guide. In the meantime her companion, under Loubeque's direction, has dug a pitfall and cleverly covered it with brush. When Lucille's horse comes cantering down the trail bearing his rider on her errand of mercy both crash into the pit, in one of the most sensational pictures thus far shown in the series. The horse is killed instantly and Lucille lies like one dead. The two slaves of Loubeque climb down into the pit, and the woman takes the papers from the bodice of Lucille's dress. She returns them in triumph to her new master, who decides that while he lacks the sacred amulet which is still around Lucille's neck, his present mission is but half accomplished. Episode 5: As Lucille Love recovers consciousness in the pit which has been dug by the natives, sees her dead horse beside her and realizes that the papers have been stolen from her, the desperation of her condition is pitiable. She crawls out of the pit only to see a pair of hungry lions in her path. To escape them she climbs up a tree and to her amazement finds a vine ladder on which she escapes into the forest. Loubeque is anxious to secure the amulet which makes Lucille a sacred person in the eyes of the natives, and he orders his native to follow her. In their search they are seen by the lions and in fear of them Loubeque builds a fire all around him through which the lions do not dare to penetrate. The smoke of this fire attracts Lucille and she steals up as near to the camping place of Loubeque as possible. Something in the manner of the native rouses a suspicion in Loubeque's mind that the savage is not loyal, but on second thought he dismisses the doubt and goes to sleep. But his doubt of the savage is well founded, and his master is no sooner asleep than he takes the papers from his master's shirt and runs away into the forest. Lucille, however, from her vantage point has seen the pilfering of the papers and follows the man. The lions prove the nemesis of the native and he perishes in their clutches. In order to search the body, Lucille goes to the camp and secures a firebrand from the fire which Loubeque, now awake and aware of his loss, has also deserted. Lucille scares off the lions and secures the precious papers from the mangled native's breech clout. She is overjoyed and makes the best time she can toward the sea-coast. Loubeque at last finds the native's body and searching it in vain, decides that the further attempt to find Lucille are in vain, as she had probably met the same fate as the thief. Lucille in her flight to the coast sees a fluted pillar sticking out of the ground in an unusual manner, and as she is examining it, the earth about her gives way and she is precipitated into the midst of a sunken city, inhabited by a race of men similar to the monkeys but with many features which closely ally them to the human race. Possibly they are a race of missing links. At first they are afraid of Lucille as she is of them. But the encouragement of numbers in on their side and they pursue her to the rude throne of their still ruder king. His primate majesty's method of subduing his subjects is to throw necklaces of diamonds to them, and while they are occupied with collecting them he carries off the prize himself. Lucille sees that she is no safer with the king than with any of the rest of his race and in a super-human burst of strength she frees herself from him and escapes. The unwonted activity of the racing and chasing about displaces certain rocks which hold back gasses. These gasses collecting quickly explode and the side of the mountain is blown out. Once more our heroine is at liberty and she searches all along the riverbank until she comes upon a native dugout, in which she floats down the little river to the seacoast. She finally sees a little brig standing off shore and attracts the attention of the boatswain of the ship's gig. He rescues her and takes her on board the boat. And Lucille passes one comfortable night since she does not realize that the spy, Loubeque, is on board the same boat, having been rescued the preceding day. Episode 6: Hugo Loubeque, an international spy, has stolen certain valuable documents of state from General Sumpter Love; the stolen papers to be used in ruining the General. To save her father's honor from tarnish, Lucille Love, the General's daughter, undertakes to regain possession of the documents single-handed. After a series of thrilling chases over land and sea, and after she has regained the papers, Lucille is picked up from one of the South Sea islands by a sailing vessel. Little does she realize, however, that the vessel is owned by her enemy, Hugo Loubeque, and that he is aboard the same boat. As soon as Loubeque discovers that Lucille is aboard the boat with the coveted documents, he disguises as a Chinese mandarin to further his plans in regaining the papers. Meanwhile Lucille is impressed by two members of the crew. The first is the captain, who is not long in showing her that he has evil designs upon her. The second is the first mate, a gruff old tar, with whom she makes friends. One night the captain attacks Lucille, and she is only saved from his brutality by the timely interference of Loubeque. The girl recognizes the spy despite his disguise, and puts herself on guard against him. Knowing that the papers must be valuable, the captain steals them from Lucille's cabin. Again the captain attacks her. This time the girl draws a revolver, forces the captain to the deck and shows him up to the crew as a coward. By this time there is a general feeling of unrest among the members of the crew. The time comes, however, when the sailors divide and carry on an armed mutiny. A few cast their lot with Lucille and the rest side with the captain. A fierce battle between contending forces is then waged upon the deck of the ship. At a critical moment when Lucille and her followers seem to be doomed, Loubeque comes unexpectedly to the girl's aid and for an instant the danger is past. But only for an instant because in the thick of the fray a battleship is sighted. Realizing that the boat is carrying contraband arms to China and that capture will mean imprisonment, those of the crew who were Lucille's friends turn against her and join the captain. Again in command, the captain has Loubeque thrown overboard and for Lucille he has even a worse fate planned. She is placed in a rowboat with a jug of water and cast adrift upon the South Seas. When she has drifted some distance from the ship, she rescues Loubeque from the water. In the small boat there is but sufficient water to last a few days. Loubeque, however, shows the greatest consideration for the helpless girl and when the chill of night comes on he covers her with his own coat. They are alone, adrift upon the South Seas and neither has the documents, the quest of which has caused them to face so many dangers. Episode 7: After numerous stirring adventures by land and sea in her effort to regain the papers which will save her father from dishonor, Lucille Love and Hugo Loubeque, her father's enemy, find themselves adrift in an open boat off the coast of China. The papers, possession of which both are fighting for, are now in the hands of Captain Wetheral of the ship from which Lucille and Loubeque were cast adrift. The enmity between Lucille and the spy dies down when they find themselves in the same boat at the mercy of the waves and winds. They are a man and a woman fighting against death. When Lucille awakens from her first sleep of trouble and exhaustion, she learns from Loubeque that the water barrel has sprung a leak and is empty. In the days that follow Loubeque proves to be a man, indeed. As a result of thirst and exposure Lucille becomes delirious, and it is only by use of main strength that Loubeque keeps her in the boat. After many days, however, the outcasts land on the coast of China. Lucille is ill and the spy turns her over to an old Chinese woman. Howbeit, as soon as one danger is averted another springs up. The Chinese woman no sooner sees the costly necklace which Lucille wears than she decides to steal it. Lucille learns of the plot, and when the thieving woman and a confederate come to rob her she is prepared. In self-protection she shoots the Chinese woman and uses the confederate to cover her retreat. In the meantime Hugo Loubeque has gathered a force of men and attacked Captain Wetheral's ship, which rides in the harbor. Loubeque takes the precious documents from the captain and has him thrown into prison. Loubeque then opens negotiations with a Chinese merchant, which results in his signing an agreement to smuggle ammunition to the port. Lucille learns from the imprisoned sea captain that Loubeque has again come into the possession of the papers. The captain, however, had retained Loubeque' s diary, and this he gives to the girl. While shadowing Louheque Lucille learns of his intended smuggling operations, and when the occasion offers she steals Loubeque's signed contract with the Chinese merchant, with the intention of using it as a lever to force the stolen documents from him. The girl, however, is now in a new predicament. Loubeque has regained possession of his ship and intends sailing immediately for the United States, where the papers will be used to dishonor her father. She hides on the wharf and watches Loubeque board the ship. It will sail within a few minutes, and whatever she does must be done quickly. Episode 8: No sooner than Lucille hides herself among the boxes on the wharf than she hears Loubeque's voice. An officer of the Chinese police is questioning him concerning the whereabouts of Lucille. Her overt act in protecting her life against a Chinese woman has been construed as murder, and she is confronted by this new danger. Even while Loubeque is talking with the policeman, he looks around the corner of the boxes and sees Lucille. He is impressed by her forlorn situation, and out of sheer pity for her he throws the policeman off the trail. Loubeque then goes aboard the ship, and it sets sail, not, however, before Lucille has stolen into the hold and found a hiding place. Again Loubeque is touched by pity for the girl, and he sends a sailor into the hold that he may discover Lucille, and that she may not want for the necessities of existence. The girl is discovered and taken before the captain. The good old mariner takes on an air of mock seriousness, and ordains that the punishment shall consist in serving as his cabin boy during the voyage. The documents of which Lucille is in search are again in the possession of Loubeque. One day, while he is in his stateroom, he catches sight of Lucille spying on him through a porthole. Surmising her purpose. Loubeque takes the documents from his pocket, places them in a scarf and hides the scarf under a cushion. The face of Lucille disappears from the porthole. The man now removes the genuine documents from the scarf and places a package of blank papers in their place. As a result, when Lucille steals in to his stateroom, she falls into Loubeque's trap. She steals the blank papers, and when she discovers Loubeque's trick, her anger is only equaled by her chagrin. But two can play at the same game. The girl holds the papers signed by Loubeque, which mark him as a smuggler of contraband arms into China. The international spy discovers the girl in his stateroom. He proposes to her that she give him the papers in exchange for the documents which will save her father's honor. She agrees and each hands the other a package of blank papers. It is still a neck to neck race of wits and cunning until Loubeque makes veiled threats as to what will transpire when the ship arrives at San Francisco. Lucille appeals to the captain for aid and describes her adventures to him. The captain calls Loubeque for an explanation of his conduct, and Loubeque tells the captain that she is insane. Her strange story partly corroborates this, and the captain is not decided in the mater when the boat arrives at San Francisco. Despite the captain's precautions, Loubeque's agents press around Lucille at the gangplank and abduct her. She is whisked away in a taxicab in a city where she has no friends. Episode 9: After Lucille is abducted from the ocean liner on its arrival at San Francisco, she is hurried to Hugo Loubeque's house by his accomplice. Although Loubeque treats his pretty captive kindly, she is never left unguarded. Again the extreme prowess of Loubeque is impressed upon the unfortunate girl. His house even, has been specially constructed to trap his victims and deceive the police. Ordinary-appearing staircases sink into secret chambers at his wish. The side walls of rooms contract as it were with dungeons of the inquisition, and even the floors of rooms move upward and downward, from story to story. Never had a successful outcome of her mission looked more hopeless. While Lucille is held incommunicado, Captain Clarkson, of the liner, and her friend, is not idle. He locates the house where the girl is held prisoner, and has it surrounded by detectives. In the meantime Loubeque becomes a victim of his own cleverness. He stumbles into a pitfall of his own making. One of the moving floors comes down upon him by accident and crushes him into unconsciousness. Before he has regained his senses Lucille is in his pocket, and is again in possession of the papers. Fearing the consequences of her act she hides the papers in the baseboard of a wall. When Loubeque awakens he misses the documents, and, although the girl denies all knowledge of them, he knows that only she would take them. His plans are interrupted, however, by the arrival of Captain Clarkson and the police. Loubeque allows them to search every nook and corner of the house. The house was built for just such an emergency, and they do not find Lucille, although they are sure she is there. Shortly afterward Lucille communicates with the detectives. The officers of the law fight their way into the house, and a terrific battle with Loubeque's henchmen follows. Collapsible rooms close in and crush the fighters. Traps open and receive the unwary, and the floors of rooms move from one story to another. In the midst of the fight a rope is dropped to Lucille, and she escapes to the roof. Loubeque is hot on her trail, however. He disables or slays her rescuers, and the fight continues at a dizzy height over housetops. Lucille at last sees an opening. She climbs down a fire-escape and Loubeque does not follow. He has a better plan. Lucille finds her way into an office building and rejoices at her freedom. She starts downstairs and meets Loubeque coming up. "You are too much trouble here," comments Loubeque, "I will take you to my ranch in Mexico." The words daze Lucille. Her tongue cleaves to the roof of her mouth. Her usual poise and self-possession flee. Ordinarily, she would have sought safety in flight. Now she seems to sense the futility of such a move. Crestfallen and supine, she follows the man of iron will down the stairs and into the street. Episode 10: When Lucille again finds herself in the hands of Hugo Loubeque all the spirit of fight is temporarily taken out of her. She is overpowered and crushed down by her utter helplessness in the hands of the unscrupulous spy. Consequently, she allows herself to be led to another of Loubeque's strongholds. To make easy his plans for removing the girl to his Mexican estate, Loubeque orders her drugged. Realizing the uselessness of combating him, Lucille agrees to drink a potion of drugged wine, providing that a lady attends her during the trip to Mexico. Loubeque agrees to this, and she swallows a powerful sleeping potion. Thompson, Loubeque's right-hand man, knows that Lucille has the costly ruby necklace she found in the sunken city, and as soon as the drug takes effect he plans to take the jewels from her. He attacks her, however, before the drug has completely done its work. She struggles with the thief and is rescued from the situation by Loubeque. Lucille is now overcome by a deep, unnatural sleep. Friends are at hand, but they come too late, as Lucille cannot combine with them against the spy. Detectives again locate Loubeque. A battle ensues, and the detectives are again defeated by the cunning spy, who prepares for every emergency. When Lucille awakens from the effect of the drugs she finds herself on Loubeque's estate in Mexico. She has the liberty of a large hacienda, but is forbidden to go outside of its walls. Indeed, she cannot go outside, as every avenue of escape is guarded by armed men. Considering that Lucille is now safely out of his way. Hugo Loubeque returns to San Francisco to search his house for the fateful papers which Lucille hid there. Howbeit, coincidence and chance play a part in the affairs of men which the most sagacious cannot foretell. After Loubeque's departure a Mexican bandit ventures into the hacienda in a spirit of mischief, and thus Lucille finds a friend in her dire need. Thompson again plans to steal the ruby necklace from Lucille, and to forward his design he saws the iron bars of Lucille's window with the purpose of entering her room that night and stealing the jewel. His trivial act becomes a means of succor to Lucille. When Thompson enters her room and attacks her that night, the bandit is called to the scene by her cries. He shoots Thompson, and with his help Lucille escapes from her prison house and from the hacienda. Even while she is escaping a new element of mystery enters into the story. The guards stand upon the hacienda walls firing at Lucille and her escort, when a veiled woman arrives and directs operations against the fugitives. When they have arrived almost at a point of safety. Lucille's good friend, the bandit, is shot and the girl rides forth alone into a foreign country embroiled in civil wars. Episode 11: When Lucille escapes from Hugo Loubeque's Mexican ranch, where she was held prisoner, she falls into a veritable hotbed of revolutionary activity. While hiding from a troop of rebel soldiers she overhears a number of Mexicans plotting against an American ranchman. Out of sympathy for her countrymen she hurries to them and tells them of the danger which threatens. Instantly the cowboys fly to arms and meet the advancing soldiers. In the height of a fierce battle, with shrapnel and bombs bursting about her. Lucille is grabbed from her horse by a Mexican and carried away from the scene of battle to a strange hacienda, which is used as a base of operations by the Mexican troops in the vicinity. An instant after Lucille is locked in a prison room she looks out of the window and sees an automobile approaching. In that automobile is Hugo Loubeque, and with a sinking heart she realizes that it was through his activity that she is again in his power. In a spirit of hopeless desperation which lends her the strength of a man. the girl wields a heavy bottle in the air and strikes her Mexican guard senseless. In order to perfect her plan of escape, which she so suddenly conceived, she dresses herself in the Mexican clothes. Before she can leave the room, however, a second soldier enters and it is not until she disables him that she makes her escape from the house. Once outside she jumps into Loubeque's automobile and dashes away. In the meantime the Mexican position has been attacked by Federals. With soldiers moving in two directions during the progress of battle, Lucille glides the machine toward the American border. She is hotly pursued by a detachment of cavalry, but she outdistances the horsemen and arrives at the American military headquarters in safety. The officers listen to her story and aid her with money and clothes. Now that she has thrown off Loubeque's power Lucille's first thought is of the papers which she hid in the spy's San Francisco home, and she sets out to get possession of them. While en route to San Francisco by train she is recognized by Thompson, one of Loubeque's principal confederates. Thompson telegraphs Loubeque of the girl's movements, and is instructed by Loubeque to allow Lucille to enter his home without interference, but that when she is once inside to hold her prisoner. Little suspecting that the spy knows of her movements. Lucille disguises herself and enters Loubeque's house to get the papers. She finds the papers, but a moment before she leaves, the room in which she is in hiding sinks to the cellar, and she finds herself trapped and Hugo Loubeque awaiting her with a sinister smile. Episode 12: True it is that Lucille has regained possession of the priceless documents, still she is in a more dangerous position than ever before. She again finds herself Hugo Loubeque's prisoner in his San Francisco residence. Her position is especially dangerous because Loubeque is now thoroughly tired of the extreme bother she has caused him. She realizes that he is now in deadly earnest, and when he demands the return of the papers she promptly hands them to him in fright and misgiving. A fortunate incident to divert Loubeque's anger occurs when Thompson, the crook-butler, enters. Lucille accuses him of stealing her jewels, and to prove her assertions she takes the "stolen" jewels from his pocket. Loubeque's pent-up anger and impatience then breaks in all its fury on the butler. The spy knocks the man down and strangles him almost into insensibility. While Lucille is waiting for her fate to be decided she glances listlessly out of the barred window. Outside of the house she sees Lieutenant Gibson, the man she loves, and who is in the same predicament with her father in that both will be dishonored unless the documents are recovered from Loubeque before he finds an opportunity to use them. Lieutenant Gibson has tracked Lucille to this house. However, Loubeque sees Gibson almost as quick as does Lucille, and he at once begins giving orders to his men that they may forestall an attack. However, Lieutenant Gibson is just as quick in action as Loubeque, and before the spy can get his forces together Gibson's men attack the house, batter down the front door and begin fighting in the corridors and upon the stairways. Loubeque realizes that his force is outnumbered and commands all to escape through the underground tunnel. Lucille is carried into the tunnel, but in covering the retreat of his men Loubeque hesitates a moment too long and Gibson dashes in and holds him up at the point of a revolver. Loubeque holds up his hands and backs against the door. Gibson looks around and gives an order, and as he does so the door against which Loubeque leans quickly pivots and the spy disappears. Loubeque joins his men in the tunnel. They escape with Lucille to an automobile. The girl soon realizes that she is being taken back to Loubeque's estate in Mexico. Once arrived at the hacienda. Thompson, the butler, begins to smart under the ill-treatment given him by Loubeque. The butler rebels against the spy and takes Loubeque's chauffeur into his confidence, and between them they plan to liberate Lucille and escape themselves. They communicate their plans to Lucille and all three decide that that night at the third hoot of the owl, they will escape in Loubeque's automobile. Loubeque becomes suspicious of the conspirators, and when he can learn nothing by other means, he plays possum. He pretends that he is asleep, and watches the three people out of the corner of his eye. Already the owl-hoot signal has been twice given, and Lucille is ready to escape, when Loubeque jumps to his feet and grapples with the astonished butler. While they are fighting the spy drops the documents. Lucille picks them up. She herself gives the third signal, jumps over the balustrade, climbs into the automobile and speeds away with the chauffeur. After overpowering Thompson, Loubeque dashes to the front of the house just in time to see Lucille being whisked away in his machine. He calls his men together. They mount their horses and give chase. Episode 13: Taking advantage of Loubeque's quarrel with Thompson, his butler, Lucille picks up the priceless documents from the floor, where they fell during the scuffle. She runs out of the hacienda, jumps into Loubeque's machine with the chauffeur, who has decided to aid her, and begins a wild dash toward the American frontier. Loubeque takes after her in another machine, and a spectacular and thrilling chase begins. The country is rough and the roads are rough and in bad shape. Loubeque can better stand the rough handling than the girl, and as a consequence he gains on her rapidly. Knowing what his fate will be if the spy overtakes him, Lucille's chauffeur loses his head while driving the machine over a dugway. The sight which Loubeque then witnesses freezes his blood and causes him to cover his eyes that he may see no more. Lucille's automobile swerves, hesitates and then dashes from the dugway and topples from the edge of the cliff into the terrible abyss. When she regains consciousness she finds herself in bed, with Loubeque caring for her and administering to her injuries. The papers are gone, and she is set back to the point where she started. The futility of fighting the purposes of such a man as Loubeque, with all his physical power, determination and keen sense of intrigue, dawns upon the girl and leaves her without an ounce of fighting energy. Unasked, she agrees to give up the fight which has already cost her so much and return to San Francisco. In her heart she has begun to admire Hugo Loubeque, his steadfastness to a purpose which could actuate only a man of intense character and brilliant imagination. Although he dare not admit it to himself, Loubeque has a feeling for Lucille which is far greater than a passing admiration for her determination, bravery and energy in fighting apparently insurmountable obstacles. However, Loubeque has never lost sight of his objective point, viz, the ruination of Sumpter Love, the man who stole his sweetheart and wrecked his life. Thus when he arrives in San Francisco with Lucille he at once begins negotiations with a Lieutenant Hadley to turn over the papers to the Department of State and thus dishonor Lucille's father. He makes an appointment to meet Hadley at a café, and there deliver the papers to him. Lucille learns of his plans and accompanies him to the café. Knowing that the spy will not talk business in her presence, Lucille feigns illness and is excused. She hires one of the cabaret dancers to allow her to use her clothes and dance in her place. Lucille dances in the café, and now and then, when she edges near Loubeque, she overhears portions of his conversation. Then a most unexpected thing happens. Lieutenant Gibson, Lucille's sweetheart, happens into the café. He cannot believe his eyes when he sees Lucille, the only daughter of General Sumpter Love, as a cabaret dancer. Lucille also sees Gibson and runs to him with the light of recognition and love in her eyes. But Gibson pushes her from him in disgust. He can have nothing to do with a cabaret dancer. She pleads with him, but he will not listen to an explanation and rushes from the café. Episode 14: After her humiliation in the eyes of the man she loves, and after failing to secure the information she sought to secure by eavesdropping on Loubeque in the café, Lucille returns to her hotel crestfallen and without hope. However, good fortune comes from an unexpected source, and by a strange stroke of circumstances Hugo Loubeque is again outwitted in an attempt to deliver the documents to Lieutenant Hadley. By previous arrangement, Hadley was to communicate with Loubeque by carrier pigeon and arrange for a definite meeting place. As Lucille sat at breakfast before an open window the pigeon, bound for Loubeque's room, was attracted into Lucille's window by the crumbs upon the table. She took up the bird and began fondling it, when she discovered Hadley's note, and then wrote another, a misleading missive, and substituted it for the original. The pigeon then was liberated and flew to Loubeque's room with the counterfeit message. In the meantime, Thompson, the crook-butler, steals into Loubeque's room in an attempt to avenge himself upon the international spy. While Thompson is still hiding in his room, Lucille enters with the intention of drawing Loubeque out and making him speak. She is unsuccessful, however, and leaves, but not before she realizes that something is wrong. Loubeque has heard someone behind his curtain, and then begins to steal forward toward the spy. Lucille is watching from the fire escape. She watches Loubeque wait for an opportune moment, and then swing around on the butler and disarm him before he can put his murderous plan into execution. Loubeque then telephones the police that there is a thief in his room. Loubeque hesitates in having Thompson arrested, however, when the butler tells him that he will tell the police all. Thompson awaits his chance, and attempts to kill Loubeque, who is too quick for him, and shoots him. He drags Thompson's body out of his room and into Lucille's room. In the meantime the girl has entered Loubeque's room and begins searching for his papers. The police enter and arrest her as a thief. Despite her objections she is taken to the police station. While this is happening, however, Loubeque discovers that Lucille has been arrested in error. Then he does a strange thing. As long as she is in jail she cannot interfere with his plans. It would have been the most natural thing in the world for him to have left her there. Instead of doing this, he at once communicated with the police and instructed them to release Lucille, as she was not the thief, and was arrested in error. Lucille is set free. She is coming to understand Loubeque less every day. She realizes, and had had demonstration of his iron will. She had done everything in her power to defeat him, and even to attempt to kill him, and then he is instrumental in having her released from prison. He is an enigma, a paradox. Episode 15: Hugo Loubeque, the international spy, falls into the trap which heretofore he had used to defeat those who opposed him. Plan as a man will, unforeseen coincidences arise which confound reason and place the work of a lifetime at naught. It happened thus with Loubeque. When Lucille learned that Loubeque was to meet Lieutenant Hadley at his (Loubeque's) home, she at once hastened to the rendezvous herself. As she was the first to arrive, she took a look through the house of so many terrors. When she beheld a picture of Loubeque upon the wall, the thought of all his crimes and the bitter hatred of her father overwhelmed her, and she raised her revolver and fired into the face of the picture. Even before the echo of the report had died away an amazing thing happened. She saw the floor of a bedroom slowly sink out of sight. Had she not known what had already transpired in that house, she would have been, indeed, confounded. Lucille removed the picture from the wall, and behind it found a switchboard. It was from this board that Loubeque controlled all the traps, staircases and sliding ways and floors of the house. Forthwith she tested every switch. One caused a staircase to disappear, while another caused a desk to sink into the floor. No sooner than she had mastered the system of switches than Lieutenant Hadley arrived. In an instant she laid her plan of action. She informed Hadley that Loubeque was not there, but that he would leave on the Golden State Limited that night. Hadley was satisfied and left. A few moments later Loubeque arrived to keep his appointment with Hadley. Instead of Hadley he found Lucille. As Loubeque leaned against the desk Lucille pressed the proper button and Loubeque fell through the floor with the heavy desk upon him. While he was still in a stunned condition, Lucille crept into the cellar and removed the documents from his inside pocket. An instant later Loubeque recovered and ran after the girl, but he was just one minute too late. She ran to the mouth of the secret tunnel, and just before Loubeque grasped her in his arms she closed down and locked the iron gate. This was her moment at last. She could laugh and jibe the spy, and he was helpless to harm her. But time had not ceased to be precious. Lucille rushed to the railroad station and caught the outgoing train. Loubeque also arrived, but he was too late. Lucille was gone forever with the papers. Returning to his home, Loubeque told Gibson that Lucille was on her way to Washington with the documents, but Gibson thought the spy was lying to him. Each took a sword, and they decided to settle the argument with blood. In the midst of a terrible duel, however, the house was surrounded by detectives, and Loubeque saw that he must escape while there was yet time. In the instant before the detectives rushed in, Loubeque took a package from his pocket containing Lucille's costly necklace and banded it to Gibson, with instructions to take it to the Secretary of War. A moment later Loubeque disappeared and the floors of the house tumbled into the cellar, trapping those who had come to arrest a spy. Lucille delivered the documents to the Secretary of War at Washington, and thus saved the name of her father and of her sweetheart, Lieutenant Gibson. Gibson arrived while Lucille was yet with the Secretary. He fell at Lucille's feet and begged her forgiveness for misjudging her, and she was only too willing to re-establish him again in her heart. That night Loubeque wrote in his diary: "My debt of hate toward Sumpter Love is canceled, for no hate can outlive love in the man who has known Lucille." Loubeque loved Lucille. END
- DirectorCharles H. FranceStarsAndy Clark
- DirectorCharles BrabinStarsMarc McDermottBarry O'MooreMiriam NesbittEpisode 1: "The Black Mask" John Perriton was unmistakably a good fellow. He was never one to spoil a party with a long face and an absence of joviality, nor was he at all likely to break up any sort of festivity by leaving early. A few people shook their heads gravely, and said that he was hitting the pace entirely too hard and that he would certainly kill himself if he didn't cut down on his liquor, but most of the world accepted him cordially on his own estimation as a man's man. Perriton loved Mary Wales almost as much as he loved himself, which is to say that he was not ready to settle down yet for her sake. Mary's brother Nelson, was a weak, helpless individual who was always in hot water. On the night of the masked ball, he came to Perriton, and asked him for help in one or two matters. He needed money very badly. To make matters worse, he had forged his sister's name to a check. The long and the short of the whole business was that Nelson must have $75,000 by the next morning. Perriton wrote an order on his bankers for $50,000, the entire extent of his depleted fortune, and drove Nelson to the station. But Nelson was not satisfied. He had to have the other $25,000. So he slipped off the train, came home by a short cut, put on his dancing mask and attempted to take his sister's jewels from her safe. He was surprised by the butler, and in the desperation of fear, killed the man. Immediately afterwards, Perriton arrived. Nelson, almost frenzied, begged him to put on the mask, and to pretend to be the criminal. No one would know who he was, and he would see that he got safely away. Perriton assented. His identity was discovered by Mary who, agonized at her discovery of the apparent character of the man she loved, forbade him even to think of her again, and allowed him to escape. Despite everything, Perriton kept silent, and allowing the woman he loved to think him the meanest type of criminal, went off into the night. Episode 2: "The Hunted Animal" In the first story of the series, John Perriton assumed the blame of a murder to save the brother of the girl he loved. We left him crossing Long Island Sound in a boat. He had but little headway. The police were on his trail. Before reaching the middle of the Sound, a detective put out from the opposite shore to intercept him. Perriton bent all efforts to escape. The detective fired and broke the wooden oarlock. Perriton pretended to be hit, fell overboard and swam beneath the surface, but McWade, the detective, was after him like a flash, and soon had him handcuffed. When they landed, McWade forced Perriton to walk in front up a steep slope. Perriton purposely slipped, fell on the detective, and both rolled to the bottom. Perriton escaped into the woods. After hours of wandering, he came to a railroad track. As Perriton watched, a man emerged from the bushes across the track, looked cautiously about, stuck a white flag in the ground, and disappeared. Shortly afterward a train passed. A young girl on the rear platform threw a bundle into the bushes near the flag. With desperate agility, Perriton seized the bundle and fled. Opening it, he discovered a suit of clothes and a note, which said the clothes were intended for an escaped convict. Full directions for the man's further guidance were clearly written out. Since the handcuffs prevented Perriton from putting on the clothes, he resolved on a desperate expedient. Hearing the approach of a train he laid the chain on the track, averted his face and waited. The train roared by and the links were crushed. Perriton put on the clothes, and for lack of a better plan, followed out the directions of the note. A bribed farmer cut off the handcuffs and carried him in a trunk to a tenement house, where a Chinaman received him. And here we leave Perriton until the next story. Episode 3: "The Double Cross" It will be remembered that John Perriton, after taking the blame of a murder to save the brother of the girl he loved, escaped to Long Island, and after a series of exciting adventures managed to evade the relentless pursuit on the part of the detective. By cleverly assuming the identity of another man, he managed to utilize preparations which had been made for the other's escape. The Chinese opium joint to which Perriton was finally brought proved to have disadvantages in addition to its obvious advantage as a haven of refuge. Before he had been there a week, Perriton was forced to join a band of criminals to avoid instant betrayal to the police. A foxy-eyed little lawyer named Lipmann, and a burly "strong-arm" man named "Biceps" were the chief agents in the present scheme of Perriton's new associates. The scheme was gorgeously simple. An advertisement was inserted in the newspapers to the effect that an heiress desired to meet a wealthy young farmer with matrimonial inclinations. The wealthy young farmer had already been found. It remained to arrange the details of taking his money away from him. According to the plan, Perriton was to act as the girl's brother. It was arranged that a letter should be sent to the man, directing him to come to the supposed home of his intended bride with a certified check as a proof of his wealth. The plan worked out beautifully. The young man called at the beautiful apartment which the gang had arranged, and was agreeably surprised by the appearance of the girl. Curiously enough, two things happened for which the gang had made no provision. For one thing, the girl fell in love with the man she was supposed to cheat. For another, Perriton had firmly resolved from the beginning that he would in some way upset the scheme. Owing largely to his endeavors, the girl confessed her duplicity to the young man, and was forgiven by him. To escape from "Biceps," who was waiting outside the door, the pair left the room by the fire escape. When "Biceps" rushed in and started shooting at the escaping couple, Perriton crept up behind him and knocked him unconscious. Then Perriton escaped by way of the dumb waiter. When the astounded police broke in they found nothing but the body of the "Biceps." Episode 4: "The Light on the Wall" When "John Pottle," fugitive from justice, helped Jennie and Harry Horn to escape from the band of criminals which was planning to get Harry's money by using Jennie as a lure, he did so in the fond hope that he would be able to severe his connection with the aforesaid criminals for good. But fate ruled otherwise. Jennie, discovering that Biceps, one of the leading spirits of the hand, had tracked her husband and herself to their refuge, implored John for help. John, trusting that Biceps had not yet found out who had been responsible for the knock-down blow which resulted in the escape of the pair, went directly to Lipmann, the lawyer who was the brains of the criminal organization, and told him that the reason for his absence from the meetings of the gang was on account of being obliged to hide from the vigilant police. Somewhat to John's surprise, Lipmann accepted his flimsy excuses without question. He told John that the gang had decided that Jennie must be punished for her double-dealing, and directed him to be present at a meeting to be held that night aboard a barge in the river. John, hoping to be of some service to Jennie, attended the meeting. His hopes were not realized to any large extent. He discovered that Lipmann had not been fooled at all by his excuses, and escaped from the barge only by besting Biceps in a terrible fight. The next day John found a notice in the personal column of a newspaper, signed with his name, directing Jennie to call at a certain address. Realizing that the notice was a trap for the girl, John hastened to the address mentioned. He arrived too late to save Jennie, and was captured himself in an attempt to rescue her. The two were securely bound and placed in a room on the top floor of the house. Here, they were suavely informed by Lipmann that they would be thrown into the river shortly after dark. By almost superhuman exertions, John succeeded in getting Jennie's handbag in his bound hands, and flashing sunlight into the eyes of a tailor across the street by means of the mirror on the bag. Rescued by the tailor, John and the girl hastened away to find some haven where they would be safe from their powerful enemies. Episode 5: "With His Hands" Through the help of Jennie, the girl he had saved from the hands of the gangsters, John Perriton was enabled to get a position as a riveter's helper in the construction company in which Jennie herself was employed. So Perriton, still under his alias of "John Pottle" entered upon new duties, which were as strenuous as they were unfamiliar. Shortly after Perriton's arrival at the works, a good deal of trouble was caused by the unwarrantable discharge of several of the employees. Recognizing John's intellectual superiority, the men chose him as a spokesman to express their grievances to their employers. Carter, the head of the works, was a hard unjust man with no regard whatever for the rights of the men working under him. When John courteously told him of the men's grievances, he cursed him roundly, and ordered him back to work. Realizing the power a man of John's type would gain among the men, Carter called a private detective, named Brownson, and ordered him to discover some pretext on which John might be discharged. He dared not discharge the man without any reason, because he knew that it would take very little in the existing state of discontent to precipitate a general strike. Brownson's scheme to ruin John Pottle was very simple. He took a piece of dynamite and put it in John's lunch basket. Then he complained to the police inspector that he suspected John of a plot to blow up part of the works. But Jennie, owing to her position in the company's office, had learned of the plot and managed to extract the stick of dynamite from the lunch basket. When John was seized and searched, no incriminating evidence of any sort was found upon him. Jennie told him of the plot, and John set out post-haste to interview Brownson. He found him on the top girder of the great building the company was constructing. Brownson attacked him with a hammer, and a fierce hand-to-hand conflict followed. Brownson was the stronger man, and gradually forced John over the edge. At last John lost his last finger-hold and fell. Brownson lost his balance and fell after him. Luckily enough, John was saved from Brownson' s fate by striking another girder. After he had been taken to the hospital, Jennie sent for Mary Wales, the girl for whose sake John had given up everything in life. But when Mary came to the hospital and saw Jennie bending tenderly above John, she did not understand, and went away without a word. Episode 6: "The Gap" While Perriton, alias "John Pottle'' was recovering from the injuries he had received in his life and death struggle with Brownson, the detective, Earle, the superintendent of the construction company, called to inquire after his injuries. While talking to Jennie, the girl Perriton had saved from the gang of criminals, Earle admitted that he could stand Carter, the president of the company, no longer. He went on to tell her that if he could find a partner with money, he would undertake the important contract on the Warrington Courthouse, himself. After Earle had left, Jennie discussed the situation with Henry Horn, her husband, and Perriton. Horn decided that he would be willing to advance the money for the courthouse proposition, so Jennie started out for the offices of the construction company to find Earle. In the company offices, she learned that President Carter had discharged Earle that morning. From a letter on Carter's desk, she gained absolute proof that the construction company was planning to get the courthouse contract by bribery. Incidentally, she learned that Earle was leaving for the west on the 12:45 train. After a rather unpleasant encounter with Carter, Jennie hurried back to Perriton and her husband. They decided that their only course was to stop Earle. Stopping Earle seemed, on the face of it, an utter impossibility, since they could not possibly reach the station by 12:45. But John Perriton was nothing, if not resourceful. He realized that the train would have to go over a near-by draw-bridge. If the draw-bridge were open, the train would, of course, be held up. So jumping into a taxicab, they rushed off to the drawbridge. It was closed. The train was almost due. The drawbridge tender suavely informed Perriton that the bridge could on no account be opened unless a boat wished to pass through. With his heart in his mouth, Perriton rushed to a tug which was moored close by, and offered the captain twenty-five dollars to take him to the other side of the bridge. The captain naturally thought John was crazy, but accepted his offer just the same. Putting out into the stream, he whistled for the crew. The bridge slowly opened, and the 12:45 train which had just reached it, was stopped. Jennie found Earle and explained everything to him. Then the four partners hurried back to the city to begin their battle with Carter. Episode 7: "Face to Face" In the weeks following Perriton's dashing and successful attempt to stop Earle's train, the four partners, Perriton, Jenny, Henry Horn and Earle, despite the determined opposition of President Carter, managed to land the court house contract which meant so much to them. A newspaper paragraph, seen by chance, changed their comfortable feeling of assurance to vivid alarm. The paragraph was to the effect that, owing to the determined efforts of President Carter, a bill was on the verge of passing the legislature, restricting all state contracts to residents of the state. Since none of the four was a resident of the state in which the court house was to be built, the bill. If passed, would be certain to ruin them. Knowing Carter's methods, Perriton decided that the best means of blocking the passage of the bill was to bring forward proof that Carter had been guilty of bribery. In order to keep a close watch over their enemy, an office was hired in the building next to the construction company, with windows directly opposite those of Carter's office. By means of a high-powered telescope, the partners obtained ample optical proof that Carter had bought the services of several members of the legislature. They discovered also that an actual transfer of money was to take place that very night in Carter's country house. Unknown to Perriton, Carter had a hold over Mary Wales, the girl Perriton loved. A document forged by Nelson, her scapegrace of a brother, had fallen into Carter's possession. Fearing to take the money to the corrupt legislators himself, he decided to use the girl and her brother as cats paws. So, using the forged mortgage as an incentive, he directed Mary and her brother to take the money and deliver it to the proper parties at his country house. So it happened that when Perriton burst into the house ahead of Earle and the detectives, he was confronted face to face by the girl for whose sake he had given up position and reputation. There was no time for love. Turning, he slammed the door in the faces of his friends, and then lowered Mary to the ground through the window. He had the proofs of bribery, and it was absolutely impossible that the detectives should find Mary in any such situation. Episode 8: "A Matter of Minutes" It will be remembered that Nelson Wales had put his sister into considerable danger and difficulty on account of the fact that the amiable young man had forged her name to a mortgage. John Perriton, the man who disappeared for Mary's sake, saved her from an unpleasant situation. The next day he came to the Wales' house to call Nelson to account. Confronted by his sister and the angry Perriton, Nelson, at first, attempted to bluster his way out of the situation. When that failed to produce the desired impression, he locked Perriton and Mary into a room, and telephoned to the police that he had captured John Perriton, the murderer. While they were locked in the room, John told Mary the truth about the murder, that Nelson had killed the butler, and that he, Perriton, had shouldered the responsibility for her sake. Mary, filled with horror, nonetheless believed Perriton's story. The police arrived at the front door, and John escaped through the window, directing Mary to meet him at a certain station on the railway line. John climbed to the roof by means of a rain spout, and after a desperate race with the detectives, succeeded in completely eluding them. At Nelson's suggestion, the detectives, foiled in their pursuit of Perriton, turned their attention to his sister. They followed her aboard the express train which she took to keep her appointment with Perriton. Mary, discovering that she was followed, sent a telegram to the train she knew Perriton had taken, telling him that she would elude the detectives, and would meet him at Vernontown, a junction point, where they could catch a north-bound express. Mary succeeded in eluding the detectives, by the clever ruse of leaving the train, and quickly slipping back aboard just as it was starting. Meanwhile Perriton's train had broken down. Realizing that everything depended on making the connection Mary had planned, he was at his wits' end. The accident to the train would certainly make him miss the connection. An aeroplane meet in the vicinity of the accident solved the difficulty. Perriton hired an aeroplane just as the express came into sight. Mounting into the air, the great birdlike machine raced for miles against the speeding train, and reached Vernontown in time. Episode 9: "The Living Dead" When John Perriton and Mary Wales fled to Albany to escape her brother, Nelson, and the detective, that amiable young man had set on their track, their first plan was to take the express for Montreal. The fact that Mary recognized her brother and the detective on the train made them realize the futility of attempting to escape across the border. After some thought, they decided that their wisest plan was to return to New York. Accordingly they took one of the steamboats running down the Hudson. Nelson Wales and the detective, after going through Albany with a fine-tooth comb, decided that there was no use in looking further. Accordingly, they came aboard the same boat Mary and John had taken. That night at dinner. Nelson looked across the tables, and saw Perriton and Mary. Filled with triumph, he ordered the detective to arrest the supposed murderer. Perriton, realizing the uselessness of resistance, quietly submitted to being locked up in his stateroom. Mary, whose stateroom was next, racked her brains to think of a way to rescue him. The detective, eager to make assurance doubly sure, stationed himself at John's door, and the situation seemed hopeless. At last, she examined the wall of the stateroom and discovering that the panels were fastened in place with screws. Inspired by a gleam of hope, she unscrewed one of the panels. John crawled through the gap. Affairs were improved, but still almost hopeless. But Mary's quick brain met the difficulty. Under her directions, John waited until she had left the stateroom, and then cautiously followed. Just as she came opposite to the detective and her brother, Mary pretended to faint. They naturally rushed to her assistance, and in the moment they did so, John shot past them, and rushing to the stern of the boat, jumped overboard. After a long, hard swim, he reached shore in an exhausted condition. Mary, on the boat, had been unable to see whether or not he reached the bank. She feared the worst, however, and her joy may be imagined, when John Perriton, safe and sound, came to her in New York. Episode 10: "By the Aid of a Film" John Perriton gave up his place in society and disappeared for the sake of Mary Wales. Her brother, Nelson, had been surprised by the butler in an attempt to steal Mary's jewels. In the fight which ensued, Nelson killed the butler. Perriton happened to enter at this moment, and with the chivalrous motive of saving the name of the girl he loved from disgrace, assumed the responsibility for Nelson's deed, and fled. After a series of thrilling adventures, Perriton was at last arrested as a result of the malevolence of Nelson Wales, the man he saved. Mary, now firmly convinced of her lover's innocence, and her brother's guilt, added her brains to Perriton's in the attempt to find some way of proving his innocence. The attempt seemed hopeless. Nelson was the only witness. Perriton had just as strong a motive for stealing the jewels, and Perriton was the one who had fled from justice. Perriton decided to steal a page from "Hamlet" and see if the play might not be the thing to catch the guilty conscience of Nelson Wales. Under his direction, Mary hired a motion picture company and took it to the Wales' estate. Here she caused three of the actors to make up exactly like the principals of the tragedy, and had the entire scene acted in accordance with Perriton's directions. When the film was completed, Nelson was put in a darkened room, and the picture was flashed on the screen before him. The exact reproduction of his crime was too much for his weakened nerves. Mad with fear, he attacked the phantom figures with a chair, and was promptly arrested by the concealed police. He made a full confession of his crime, and died of heart failure. John Perriton's vagabond life was finally at an end. He was enabled to take again the position he had forfeited. Three months after Nelson's death he married Mary. END
- DirectorOscar EagleLawrence B. McGillJohn W. NobleStarsNorma PhillipsMayme KelsoJessie Lewis'Our Mutual Girl' was unique. Not quite a serial, not quite a newsreel, and not strictly an advertisement, it combined elements of all three. In 52 weekly one-reel episodes, running from January 19, 1914 to January 11, 1915, the Mutual Girl outwitted villains, saw the sights of New York, met with theatrical and political celebrities (who frequently helped her out of trouble), and tried on fashionable outfits in chic stores. The fashions were an early example of product placement--although, apparently, not paid placement.
- DirectorWally VanStarsClara Kimball YoungCharles BrownL. Rogers LyttonEpisode 1: "Treachery in the Clouds" This picture is a parody on the numerous thrills, perils and mysteries recently perpetrated and must not be taken too seriously. After being run over by a ponderous four-horse-power "1892 Combustible," belonging to Flora Fourflush, an orphan millionairess, Frank Goodheart, a poor but true-hearted young street-cleaner, is carried home in her car. While Frank is recuperating, Sir Simon Blackheart, a ferocious villain and a persistent suitor for Flora's hand, calls, and when his love is scorned, seizes Flora in his arms and endeavors to kiss her. Frank hurls himself upon the rascal and throws him out the door, while she exclaims. "My Hero," but he refuses her hand in marriage, until he has first made his fortune. Sir Simon then sends a dynamite bomb through the mail to the unsuspecting Flora, but Frank is "on the job" and again the villain is foiled. Blackheart carries out a dastardly plan, shortly afterwards, breaks into Flora's hangar, where her trans-Atlantic flier is housed, and steals the aeroplane's engine. On the day of the big race across the ocean, Flora seats herself in her machine and the great ship wobbles up into the air, acting like a dragonfly with a broken wing. Sir Simon enters the grounds, laughing grimly. Flora, meanwhile, now 3,000 feet in the air, suddenly discovers that her engine has been stolen. Frank, watching her through his glasses, realizes the awful truth, and jumping into a balloon, soars upwards to the rescue of Flora. Brave Frank, "steering" his balloon nearly under the falling air machine, grabs the heroine as she passes him and drags her safely into the balloon. Sir Simon witnesses this, and boiling with rage, loads his deadly rifle. With one fatal shot, he bursts the balloon's gas bag, hurling our hero and Flora to earth. Episode 2: "The Treasure Temple of Bhosh" At the finish of the first installment of this series, Frank, the honest young street cleaner and Flora, the beautiful millionairess, were hurtling through the air towards the earth, after being thrown from a balloon burst by the arch-fiend. Sir Simon Blackheart, their hated enemy. By an odd coincidence the balloon basket containing Flora and Frank drops through the glass conservatory of Flora's house, arriving just in time for tea. Flora then decides to take a trip to India to see the Rajah of Chutneypore. Frank accompanies her and on the way they are attacked by pirates, the chief of whom proves to be none other than Sir Simon. Frank is captured, but Flora escapes in the yacht. By the villain's orders, poor Frank, with a cannon tied to his neck, is thrown overboard. Holding his breath, the brave youth picks up the cannon and walks along the ocean bottom to shore and safety. Finding a small boat, he gets into it and rows out to sea. The pirates see him coming and fire upon him. The shell, with fuse burning, drops into Frank's boat. He nonchalantly picks it up and hurls it back to the pirate ship, where it explodes and kills all but Sir Simon. Later, Flora arrives in India, and while visiting the Rajah, is seen by the rascal Sir Simon, disguised as an Indian fakir. The Rajah shows her the famous treasure house of Bhosh, which is in a vault beneath the figure of a huge elephant. While she is inside Sir Simon creeps up and pulls the elephant's tail, causing the ponderous roof to slide down, slowing crushing the helpless Flora. She screams for help, and Frank, who has just arrived at the palace, breaks through a stone wall with his bare hands to rescue her. Sir Simon then prevails upon the Rajah to have the foreigners thrown into the alligator pit. and the terrible vengeance is carried out to the bitter end. The next installment shows what occurred in the alligator pit. Episode 3: "A Race for Life" By performing prodigies of valor, Honest Frank, our hero, rescues himself from the alligator pit where he and the beautiful heroine, Flora Fourflush, have been thrown by order of the Rajah of Chutenpore, unduly influenced by Sir Simon Blackheart, the villain. Safely out of danger himself, brave Frank then rescues Flora by stealing the giant ruby from the treasure-house elephant, and is tracked by his human bloodhounds. Unsatiated by his villainies, Blackheart commands his thugs to capture Frank, and the long-suffering hero is tied upon a railroad track. Flora is warned of his terrible plight and hastens in her racing car, good for ten miles an hour or more, to the rescue of her lover. Sir Simon steals a locomotive and is soon speeding towards the helpless Frank. The poor street-sweeper is struck and run over, but miraculously escapes injury, springs into the engine cab and heaves Sir Simon down the bank. The arch-villain then disguises himself as a child, hunts up our unsuspecting hero and tells him that Flora awaits him in a deserted cottage. Sir Simon little knows that the Rajah and his men are on his track. Flora, meanwhile, has arrived too late to save her lover from the engine. She learns of his escape, and meeting the Rajah, is told that Sir Simon has tied Frank to several cases of dynamite in the cabin and is even now lighting the fuse. Brave as a lioness, Flora rushes to help Frank, followed by the Rajah and his High Priest. They overcome Blackheart, rescue Frank from his perilous position and tie Sir Simon in his place, beside the explosive. All depart to a safe distance and see the villain blown to atoms. Frank and Flora embrace and the Rajah adds to their happiness by presenting them with the huge ruby as a wedding present. END
- DirectorCharles GiblynStarsMurdock MacQuarriePauline BushDoc CraneThe youthful monarch, Edward IV of England, is treacherously advised by Sir Stephen Fitz Allen, who is the King's boon companion, in favor of turning down the offer of Louis XI to cease the controversy that has been pending so long. The King, Edward IV, follows the advice of his companion and the French messenger meets with an insult, returning to the French court in a quandary. The old roue, remembering through a vision his scene with Villon in the dungeon, sends for the Poet Laureate to solve the riddle. Villon suggests that it might not be a bad idea to remove Sir Stephen, thereby causing the weakling, Edward IV, to fall into his hands. Louis XI considers the advice good and orders Villon to proceed to England and to move against Sir Stephen. Sir Haco Hubba, long tired of the strife and bloodshed, has shut himself up in Castle Lyme, where he dwells in peace with an only daughter, the Lady Eleyne. Villon learns of Sir Haco, begs an interview, and is invited to call at Lyme Castle. Villon accepts. Here he impresses upon the mind of Sir Haco the fact that it is better that one perish, than that the lives of countless thousands be sacrificed. Sir Haco agrees, but can see no way whereby the wily Sir Stephen can be induced to enter a trap. The Lady Eleyne enters and Villon informs Sir Haco that his beautiful daughter is the bait whereby to catch the fish. Eleyne's scruples are overcome and she agrees to go to court and there ensnare Sir Stephen. The action follows and Sir Stephen, now madly in love with Eleyne, follows her to Castle Lyme. Villon is on the watch, and catching Sir Stephen prowling about the castle halls, summons Sir Haco's men-at-arms, who quickly dispatch Sir Stephen, whereupon Villon returns to Louis' court and acquaints his master with the success of the expedition.
- DirectorCharles GiblynStarsMurdock MacQuarrieJefferson OsborneDoc CraneUpon a strongly fortified island dwells the Seigneur D'Yvry, commonly known as Monsieur Bluebeard. This man openly defies God, King Louis and the world in general. Aside from this, Bluebeard preys upon the maidens of his small domain, especially such as leave the altar as newly wedded wives. Louis XI has been patient with the vagaries of Bluebeard, hoping that someday he may win him over to better ways. To this end Louis sends Oliver le Dain to Bluebeard. Oliver's reception is anything but flattering. He returns to Louis, having barely escaped with his life. Whereon, Louis goes into a violent rage. Deep in thought, his mind reverts to Francois Villon as the instrument whereby Bluebeard may be humbled. Villon is summoned before the irate king, who orders him to proceed to the D'Yvry stronghold and cut Bluebeard's claws. Before starting for Castle D'Yvry, however, the crafty Villon takes into his confidence one Petrara, a magician of the period. It is well known that Bluebeard is a devotee to the practice of "black art." Working in the mines of Bluebeard are many men of a peculiar race, the Lhetta. The local priest has succeeded in converting these monsters to a belief in a Higher Being, the good man ruling them with kindness instead of fear. Villon and Petrara arrive at Castle D'Yvry at a time when the community is greatly wrought up over the action of Bluebeard's elder son, Tankred, who has bidden the newly wedded wife of young Carca present herself at the castle. Villon is quick to seize upon this incident. He interviews the priest. Between them they hatch a plot whereby the Lhetta will be permitted to wreak their vengeance upon Bluebeard and his two sons. At a barbecue which is held in the castle courtyard, and to which the villagers and the Lhetta are bidden, the signal being the ringing of the castle bell, the rebellion takes place. Bluebeard, trapped in a tower room by Villon and Petrara hears the battle raging below. Wrenching loose the bars of the window, he climbs out upon a narrow cornice. Here he is seen by the maddened Carca, who lets fly a bolt from the cross. The Seigneur's death follows his two sons meeting a similar fate. The wily Villon then determines to play a joke upon Louis XI. He dresses himself in the clothing of Bluebeard and returns to court. Here he is seen by the nerve-shaken Oliver Le Dainthat they are besieged by Bluebeard. Villon is shown into the presence of the king, who quickly orders the arrest of the visitor. Whereupon Villon discloses his identity, much to the annoyance of the frightened Oliver. Louis XI appreciates the poet's joke and the incident ends happily.
- DirectorCharles GiblynStarsMurdock MacQuarrieDoc CraneMark FentonKing Louis XI of France is beset with the idea that his uncle, the aged King Rene, is trafficking with England and Burgundy against the French throne. So well has Francois Villon served his royal master that Louis sends him to Rene's court, there to either realize or set at rest the suspicion. The poet-ambassador obeys the will of Louis and soon convinces himself that the French king's suspicion is unwarranted. His diplomatic business being at an end, Villon lingers to enjoy himself at Rene's court. Guests of King Rene are the Duke and the Duchess De Breuil. The young Duchess, charmed with Villon's poetry, draws the susceptible poet into a mild flirtation. Her husband, the Duke, discovers Villon and the Duchess in the garden. The Duke his anger getting the better of his good judgment, insults Villon and hurls his gage at the feet of the poet. The action takes place before King Rene, who, while regretting that the quarrel has been forced upon Villon, tells the poet that the lists are at his service. Villon is no fighter, nor is he a coward; he prefers a battle of wits rather than a battle with swords. To save his face, Villon picks up the Duke's glove and with it lightly assaults its owner, then claims protection on the plea that a vow prevents his indulging in an assault at arms. To further fortify himself against such a possibility the poet requests that the king set him some knightly task, that life may be saved. The request pleases the aged monarch. Thought immediately comes to him concerning one John Ballue, a man of great cruelty, of whom it is known that his prisoners, having once gotten into his clutches, never escape, each prisoner being confined in a narrow box, to which there are no keys. The King informs Villon that he, accompanied by the Duke De Breuil, shall go to Anjou and pit themselves against John Ballue. The Duke, knowing the history of Ballue, refuses. Villon sneers at the Duke, then accepts the King's mission. We next find Villon at the palace of John Ballue, measuring his wits against those of the jailer. Villon wins the mental battle, succeeds in shutting Ballue into one of his own boxes and liberates the prisoners. En route to Rene's court, Villon is foolish enough to offer Ballue an opportunity to fight for his life. Once out of the box the crafty prisoner makes good his escape. Humiliated and fearing the wrath of Rene and the ridicule of Louis XI, Villon bids the released prisoners go their various ways then seeks out the camp of his vagabond friends. Here we leave him, though not for long, for it is known that the French king, after three years, sought him out and raised him to a dignity greater than that which he enjoyed prior to his return into Vagabondia.
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherPatsy Bolivar is always in hard luck, and everything he attempts invariably goes wrong. When the careless housemaid substitutes salt for sugar in the sugar bowl, Patsy is thrashed for it by an over-severe parent. When she leaves something on the floor for the master of the house to stumble over he is beaten for that. He has an evil genius, or hoodoo, known as Sykesy, who, finding it an easy matter to commit all kinds of offenses and have the blame thrown on Patsy, works his nefarious power without stint. At the opening of this number "Jack Prince," a summer boarder with the Bolivar family, entrusts a letter to Patsy for delivery, which contains an offer of marriage to Mary Clare the schoolmistress. But Patsy, fancying that he himself is in love with Mary, jealously gives the letter to Sykesy to deliver, and gathers a large bunch of flowers for the object of his secret affections. On the way to school, Sykesy reads the letter from Jack to Mary, discovers that by the change of one word he can make it the reverse of what was intended, and in this form the letter is delivered. When Patsy places the bouquet on the schoolmistress' desk, Sykesy sprinkles pepper over it. When both these faults are discovered and Patsy is sent supperless to bed, he registers a solemn vow that for the rest of his life he is going to keep busy licking every man, woman or child who says there is no such thing as bad luck. In Jane Sykes, sister of Sykesy, Patsy has his one champion in the school aside from his little sister, Kitty. She does not attract him, however, for when he is not dreaming of Mary, he favors another schoolgirl, Tillie Grace, who has already selected Sykesy as her sweetheart.Patsy Bolivar No. 1
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherPatsy's love for his schoolmistress, Mary, receives a sudden shock in the announcement that her marriage to Jack Prince is to occur within a few days. He resolves to sever himself from a life that could not be happy without Mary. A bottle of rheumatic liniment is the only medium at hand with which to achieve the desired result, and as he is placing the bottle to his lips he is interrupted by sister, Kitty, who seizes his arm and cries for the family to come. The only sympathy he receives from his irate father is the usual command to perform his ordinary routine of chores before going to school. On her way to school with Mary, Kitty reveals to Sykesy and the faithful little Jane, her brother's hopeless love, and this furnishes Patsy's evil genius with new material. On arrival at school, Sykesy writes a love poem expressing Patsy's wild passion for his schoolmistress, and as usual, the innocent victim of circumstances is punished. The school board orders a half holiday in honor of Mary's approaching marriage. In search of relief from his heart pain, Patsy consents to umpire a baseball game, and is nearly torn to pieces by the irate players. Meanwhile, Mary's friends are fitting up and providing Mary's new home and Patsy climbs a tree where he can witness, unobserved, these proceedings and weep over them. He falls, owing to a breaking limb, and dislocates his arm. This, he is compelled to wear in a sling at Mary's wedding and his discomfiture is added to, when he falls headlong into the aisle, tripped up by the watchful Sykesy, and his father, believing that is the result of his own stupidity, sends him home. Patsy's accident and his mother's pleas cause father to consent to providing Patsy with his first pair of long trousers, and his first thought on securing them is to show them to Tilly, who, in spite of Sykesy's attachment, he has decided to bestow what is left of his shattered heart. He hurries to Tilly, who is at the Sykesy home, and taking her to a quiet corner oi the garden and while he is asking her to try and mend his broken heart, the jealous Sykesy ruins his new suit of clothes by throwing a bucket of bran mash over them, and he is compelled to go to school in his old ones. Devising a revenge on Sykesy, he goes to a drug store and purchases a bottle of nitric acid. While seated behind his enemy, he pours it down his back. For this he is sentenced to the ignominy to being held on a boy's back, and beaten by no less a person that Sykesy himself. Kept in after the first recess, he goes to the blackboard and writes the words: "I sure am the human boomerang," and bursts into tears. Mary comes to comfort him and as he throws himself weeping into her arms, he is interrupted by Jack, and thus are sown the seeds of a causeless jealousy.Patsy Bolivar No. 2
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherThrough the medium of traveling shows, Patsy Bolivar has formed a conception of the proper dress for college students, and we find him so habilitated, much to the delight of his mother and sister, and the disgust of his father, who had much rather see him eschew golf and other gentle pastimes, and take up boxing. Patsy's Hoodoo, Sykesy, and his sister Jane, as well as Tilly Grace, are also seen preparing for the same college to which Patsy is bound. Arriving at the railway station, he finds all the boys and girls of his school days, gathering to bid him farewell and trying to get his great load of paraphernalia on the train, which starts without him. Making a leap at the rear end of the train, his grip becomes scattered along the track, and in trying to retrieve it, he falls from the train down an embankment, and arrives late at college. His arrival there is the signal for much amusement on the part of the students, and, in spite of the advice of his friend Jack Prince, athletic coach at the college, he proposes to dress in his own way, which makes him the butt of his fellow-students and co-eds. He continues his hopeless adoration for Tilly Grace, and this is the cause of much trouble, on account of the jealousy of Sykesy. Discovering, however, that Jack's advice as to personal appearance has been correct, he goes into training with such vigor that he breaks his leg in his first game of football. One day, pursuing his training, he is passed by an automobile containing Sykesy, Tilly, Jane and a student, and these stop for luncheon at a roadhouse. An idler steals the automobile, Jane gives the alarm, and a bike cop starts in pursuit. The auto thief, finding Patsy tired on the road after a long run, gives him a lift home, and, being overtaken by the bike cop, the two are arrested. At the police court in the morning Jane arrives in time to free Patsy of the charge against him, she swearing that at the time the car was stolen, he was not in it. After the football game, Patsy's broken leg makes him a veritable hero, and the students, wishing to see how far he will go in the way of playing pranks, induce him to be a party to placing a cow in the president's library, and for this he is suspended for the balance of the term. The picture ends with Patsy, in spite of his lameness, being put to work at plowing on his father's farm.Patsy Bolivar No. 3
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestFlora LeaIt is the time of final examinations at the college just before vacation. Patsy, having paid full attention to study, is ready to pass successfully, but Sykesy's attention to athletics made him a possible candidate for plucking. The boys are in the examination room just finishing their examination papers and Sykesy is laboring hard to complete his. While the other boys are out on the campus waiting to be called upon for the final delivery Sykesy steals a page from the papers of the boy next to him and copies it. One of the teachers suddenly appearing, in his haste to conceal the stolen paper, Sykesy puts it among Patsy's papers. When the stolen page is found among Patsy's papers, he is called before the faculty, and, being unable to explain how it came to be there, he is expelled for all time from the college, his connection with the automobile theft never having been satisfactorily explained to the faculty. Arriving at his home, even his doting mother cannot induce his irate father to believe that there is any hope for Patsy, and he is put to the hardest work on the farm. On the other hand, Sykesy comes home, having successfully passed his first examinations, contrary to popular belief, and is received in the village as a lion. A grand picnic is given in honor of the returned collegians, but Patsy is in disgrace, and his father, now more severe than ever, compels him to do his work on the farm which is more confining than ever. But Patsy takes his medicine like a man, submits to the taunts of Sykesy and other young people, and remains away from the festivities. During the day Sykesy and Tilly cross the field in which Patsy is at work, and leave the bars down. Later on, an opportunity is offered Patsy for a long-sought interview with Tilly, whose love he still covets. Accordingly Patsy deserts his post and meets Tilly by the brook, only to have it interrupted by a fight with Sykesy. While he is away the herd of cows escape from the field, and his irate father, having forbidden him to leave, attempts to give him a thrashing. This Patsy refuses to receive, and leaves the gathering in spite of the tears of his mother and sister. Going to his home, he leaves a note to the effect that, not having been able to make good at home, he has gone to shift for himself. But the only bill he has is a bad one, and he is put off the train at night in an unknown town, where he spends his first night away from home on a bench in the railway station.Patsy Bolivar No. 4
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherNumber 4 of the series left Patsy a runaway from home, and asleep in the waiting room of some village unknown to him. It was less than fifteen miles from his home town, but he had never been there. Awakening from his disturbed and cheerless sleep, he arose and sallied forth. Witnessing Storekeeper Grace, uncle of his ideal Tilly, discharging an idle clerk, he applies for the position and secures it. But his bad luck has followed him here, for in taking down the window shutters he smashes a pane in the store door and is "docked" $2. On the forenoon train, Jack, Mary, Tilly, Jane and his evil genius, Sykesy, come to Fairfield to attend a church bazaar to be given that night, all of them unconscious of Patsy's presence in the village. Tilly goes with Jane to visit her uncle, is delighted at finding Patsy, but promises not to reveal his whereabouts, both girls agree to permit him to shift for himself in his own way. Shortly after their departure a customer enters the store for a dose of bicarbonate of soda. Patsy furnishes caustic soda instead, nearly kills the man, and loses his first position in his first hour. The Breach between Sykesy and Tilly brought on by the escaped cows incident broadens when she sees Patsy hard at work, and her coldness further increases his thirst for revenge. Jack, who has two or three times found his jealousy stirred by Mary's evident fondness for Patsy, allows it to be fed by Sykesy's stories, and when he goes out for a walk from the hotel. Mary sees Patsy, grieving over his discharge and asks him to her room, where he tells her his hard luck story, ending by weeping on her shoulder. Jack goes to the room, finds Patsy and his wife in this compromising position and throws him downstairs and out of the hotel. Not knowing what to do next. Patsy secures a position in a barber shop and his first customer is Sykesy. After cutting him two or three times, Sykesy makes a vicious rush at him. The barber returns and discharges him. Meanwhile, Patsy's parents have discovered his whereabouts and after following him in the different places where he has been, find him at the bazaar, where he has been taken by the faithful Jane. While he is having a good time at the bazaar Sykesy tells the minister that he is a bad character, having been in jail and also expelled from college. Leaving the hall with his parents he goes to the store for his suitcase, touches off the burglar alarm, is pursued by the constable and hurries out of town on the trucks of a freight car.Patsy Bolivar No. 5
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherIn No. 5 of the series we left Patsy leaving the village of Roseville on the trucks of a freight train. At the village of Springtown he is discovered and thrown down an embankment. Picking himself up, he wanders up the road and encounters a lunch wagon, whereupon he orders a pie for breakfast. But, not having any money, the lunchman kicks him out and Patsy runs away, pursued by the lunchman. As they disappear the wagon is driven off by a tramp and Patsy, eluding his pursuer, joins the tramp. Both are arrested by the village constables, and given ten days in jail. In the meantime, Jack Prince and his wife come to Springtown, where Jack has secured a position as assistant superintendent of a trolley company. On being discharged from the lockup. Patsy applies for a position in a drug store, but being recognized by the magistrate who sentenced him, he is driven away, and then goes to the office of the street car company, where he is placed on trial as a conductor and has several unfortunate experiences. Tilly, having become tired of the attentions of Sykesy, and still favoring Patsy, also comes to Springtown on a visit to Mary, where she is found by Patsy, and his attention to her almost loses him his position. Jack writes to Patsy's parents disclosing his whereabouts, which causes them to set out for Springtown. From them the faithful Jane learns where he is and also takes the train, pursued by Sykesy. Jane finds her way to Mary's house, but immediately on her arrival Mary receives a telegram calling her to a seminary, where she has applied for a position, and sets out for the station. At the same time, Patsy, now entrusted with the duties of conductor, encounters his family as passengers and, spurred on by the revengeful Sykesy, a rough crowd throw him from his car. He is picked up by Mary and the two go to Jack's office to find that he has gone with the Bolivars to investigate the throwing off incident. She leaves a note for him, sending it back by the office boy, and proceeds to the train with Patsy. Here she tries to induce him to return to the village, but finding that his father is after him, he insists upon running away and departs on the train, with Mary, just as her husband and the others arrive, to be told by Sykesy that she has eloped with Patsy Bolivar.Patsy Bolivar No. 6
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherArriving at Sunnyside and finding Patsy inclined to still remain in her company, Mary tells him that such a thing would, of course, be impossible, owing to the jealousy of her husband, but he does not know what to do in his impecunious position, so Mary secures for him a position in the seminary as gardener. The presence in their midst of so young a man causes great excitement among the young women. For a time all goes well, but soon Patsy is discharged on account of too much attention to the young ladies. Immediately there is a strike among them, and they demand his reinstatement. Inquiry develops that Patsy is a college man and an athlete, and as Mrs. Squills, the head of the seminary, contrary to the wishes of her husband, desires to develop physical culture in the seminary. Patsy is promoted to the chair of physical science. Trouble awaits him, however, for his ideas that young women should be trained as young men are and put through the same variety of exercises finds its way into the newspapers, and brings to the seminary a large body of protesting parents, who insist upon the elimination of the objectionable instructor or they will remove their daughters and charges. They interrupt Patsy at work with his pupils in the gymnasium and Patsy is summarily discharged. His evil genius, Sykesy, has come to the seminary in the interest of his sister Jane, and Patsy, believing that this new trouble is his doing, administers a severe beating, ending with a ducking in the swimming pool. The edict has gone forth that Patsy must go, but that night the young ladies give him a reception at midnight in one of the rooms in order to express their disapproval of his dismissal. The noise in the room is heard by Mary, who is sleeping just below, and. going up stairs, she knocks at the door of the refectory room. Patsy is let from the window by a rope hastily constructed from sheets. This breaks and Patsy falls through a skylight upon the bed of his admirer. Mrs. Squills, in order that he may not be discovered, she conceals him under the blankets, but there he is found by the irate Squills, who horsewhips him and again turns him out upon the pitiless world.Patsy Bolivar No. 7
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherIn the last number we found Patsy turned away from the Sunnyside Seminary with no object in sight. After weeks of wandering he finds his way to the seashore, where he secures employment in a fishing company. He is a failure as a fisherman, and after being almost smothered by being plunged into a boat load of slimy, living fish, he is discharged. Wandering aimlessly down the beach be picks up a small bag containing a number of medals, and these he decides to employ in the direction of securing other employment. This comes to him at the bathing pavilion of the summer resort near the fish ponds, where the medals and a letter of recommendation from Mrs. Squills of the Seminary secure him an appointment as instructor. By a coincidence Father Bolivar has taken a cottage at the same resort, for the benefit of his wife's health. At the same time, the Sykes and Graces arrive at the hotel and encounter Patsy when they go to the beach for a swim. The reunion with his parents is touching and cordial, but Sykesy again suffers under the growing affection of his lady love, Tilly, for the now important Patsy. Sykesy and Tilly become caught in the undertow on the first day of their arrival, and their lives are saved by Patsy, He now becomes a veritable hero, is awarded the Carnegie Hero Medal and $1,000 in cash, and a reception is given to him at the hotel. All the young women insist upon dancing with him and all the men are jealous of him, but he selects Tilly as his constant partner, much to the grief of the faithful Jane. In a secluded spot on the hotel balcony Patsy summons the courage to propose to Tilly, and seeing that he is now provided with a goodly amount of cash, she accepts him. Their interview is interrupted by Sykesy, the usual fight occurs, and Patsy throws Sykesy over the railing onto the pavement below. Sykesy is taken upstairs, the doctor pronounces his case a serious one, and it is decided to have Patsy arrested. But Jane, overhearing this, warns him. He runs away pursued by the landlord and the porters of the hotel, and is captured.Patsy Bolivar No. 8
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherBelieving that he loves her, when in reality his attentions to Tilly are merely to spite his enemy Sykesy, Patsy continues to urge his suit with her instead of with Jane. Sykesy attacks Patsy on the veranda of the hotel and is thrown over the railing to the roadway, severely injured. A warrant is sworn out and after an exciting chase he becomes mired in a swamp and is captured. But the vengeful Sykesy, preferring to take the law into his own hands, refuses to prosecute his rival, who is discharged by the magistrate, while Jane locks Sykesy in his room to prevent his threatened murderous attack on her beloved Patsy. Sykesy climbs from his window, armed with a club. Jane discovers him and warns Patsy to flee. This he does, taking the compliant Tilly with him, instead of rewarding Jane for her persistent love of him. The runaways hurry away on a motorcycle. They are pursued by Uncle Grace and the constables in an automobile. Finding themselves in danger of capture, they leave the motorcycle, take to the river in a canoe and are capsized. They obtain dry clothes from a farmer. Still resolved to carry out the purpose of their thoughtless elopement, the two set out in their uncouth and ill-fitting raiment borrowed from the farmer's wife, and believing that there is something suspicious about their behavior, both clergymen and justice of the peace refuse to marry them. So they take refuge in a country hotel in separate rooms, Tilly assuring Patsy that their escapades are a foolish mistake, and that she has quite repented of her desire to marry him. Meanwhile the pursuit of the fugitives has been much alive, and seeing that they are certain to be captured, the faithful Jane, mounts a horse, sets out for the hotel where their whereabouts has been located by the constables, warns Patsy, places him on her horse, and he eludes pursuit by concealing himself in a cornfield while the repentant Tilly is taken home convinced that Patsy was never intended to be her mate.Patsy Bolivar No. 9
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherIn chapter nine we left poor Patsy asleep in a cornfield after his frustrated elopement. But there comes to sweeten his slumber the most wondrous dream that ever visited tired mortality. He is suddenly conveyed to Fairyland, where he finds the best of his friends. Mary and her husband, Jack, are king and queen. Arriving before the throne of Titania, his torn and tattered clothes are changed to those of mischievous puck, and he is asked to express three wishes, all of which shall be at once gratified. Pursuant to these wishes, his stern father arrives on the back of Nightmare and is spanked by a revengeful son. His evil genius, Sykesy, in the person of the fickle Tilly, is provided with a scolding woman who is never to leave him. Mr. Grace, who has been so instrumental in persecuting him, is sentenced to a lifetime of riding on a bicycle head downward, and the cruel schoolmaster becomes a scarecrow and is held by the Boogaboo while Patsy thrashes him. The last wish, reserved for himself, is that he may be blessed forever by the love of the faithful woman, and Cupid brings to him the constantly loyal Jane, and the two are led to the marital altar of Fairyland. But poor Patsy, awakening under a pelting rainfall, which his dream has made a shower of fairy flowers, seeks refuge under the top of a farmer's wagon and is for the first time taken to the great city.Patsy Bolivar No. 10
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherA singular metamorphosis of fate transforms Patsy into a veritable melodramatic hero. After the dream he had in episode Number Ten we find him bound for the great city leaving no trace of his whereabouts. But the watchful Jane inserts a personal in a newspaper telling of his mother's illness and asking him to write. Arriving at the market place with the farmer, he sets out to make his way in the city and, having a considerable part of the money gained as a prize for life saving, he decks himself out in a new suit of clothes. He encounters an engaging bunco steerer, known to the police as Bunco Bill, the Crying Crook, and although many times warned by a friendly policeman named Flinn, Bill's tears cause him to believe his new friend a much persecuted man, who, after introducing Patsy to some companions, who fleece him of a goodly amount of his money at cards takes him to sleep with him and poor Patsy awakens in the morning to find he has been robbed of his last penny. However he has seen the personal in the newspaper and telegraphed home to say that he is well and happy and will return home when he has made good. On receipt of the telegram Jane discovers that Jack and his wife Mary are about to visit the city and induces them to take her with them. On the morning after their arrival while Jane is setting out to find some trace of Patsy he is sitting in his room contemplating suicide. Finding a pistol in a bureau drawer he tries to shoot himself but the weapon is not loaded, and when he tries to hang himself to an electric fixture, he pulls that and the plaster from the ceiling down on his head. Then, wandering into the streets, he several times misses the faithful Jane who, assisted by Officer Flinn, is searching the streets and resorts. In one of these resorts Bunco Bill is encountered and refuses to tell Flinn where Patsy is, but agrees to tell Jane, and she asks him to come to her hotel. That night Patsy decides upon ending his life by a plunge in the river and proceeds to the dock where he sits for a few moments of reflection, an event which results in making him famous. Bunco Bill and the yeggmen have decided to do away with Officer Flinn for his continued sleuthing, and luring him into a chase after them, lead him to the very dock where Patsy is considering his fatal plunge. A struggle occurs between Flinn and the yeggmen and he is thrown into the river and saved by Patsy. In the police station Patsy is elevated to the position of a real hero and is induced to accept a position on the force. Meanwhile Bill and some of the yeggmen repair to Jane's hotel, and Bill sends in his card. She hurries to meet her caller in the office and at once consents to go with him. But Mary not wishing that she shall go alone on such a doubtful errand, insists upon accompanying her and enters the taxicab with her and the yeggmen. As the cab pulls away Patsy dressed as a policeman clings on behind it, and when the yeggmen attempt to force the young women into a building in an alley, Patsy effects their rescue and the picture ends with Patsy and Jane in each other's arms tor the first time.Patsy Bolivar No. 11
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherAfter his heroic rescue of Number 11, Patsy becomes a member of the force, but receives a reprimand for having permitted private matters to interfere with duty in the arrest of his old enemy Sykesy for insulting an officer. On the following day a Secret Service agent visits police headquarters and requests to have the biggest rube on the force assigned to him, for the purpose of using him in the apprehension of some opium smugglers who have been operating between ship and shore on the river. To this duty, Patsy is at once assigned, and sent to the smuggler's, but disguised as a tramp. In this guise he succeeds in ingratiating himself into the good graces of the smugglers, and is given lodging in their lair. Dreamer that he is, his first sleep among the smugglers is visited by an awful nightmare. He is transported to the days of smuggling in the 16th Century, in which Grace becomes the Smuggler Chief, Sykesy his Lieutenant, and these capture the beloved women of the story and carry her off to their lair. Patsy and Jack bravely armed as swashbucklers fight fiercely to rescue the fair prisoners. Patsy awakens, just as Jack is made to walk the plank, and he is being hanged to the yardarm, only to find that in his dream the sheet has become wrapped about his neck and his outcries cause him to be thrown bodily out of the hut by his new smuggler friends. Here he encounters his Secret Service employer, who, with assistants, has been on the watch all night. While he is giving evidence to the Secret Service agent, the chief of the smugglers shoots him in the leg, and none of the glory of arresting the band comes to him. The next day we find him in the hospital surrounded by his father, mother, sister and the ever faithful Jane.Patsy Bolivar No. 12
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherAfter recovery from the mishap of No. 12, Patsy again sets out to seek employment, encouraged by the renewed vows of the faithful Jane. At the same time a new character appears in the story in the person of Mrs. Sykes' brother Tom, a man of wealth, who invites her and the remainder of the family for a cruise on his yacht. Tilly is now a member of the family, having become married to Sykesy and a temper in her, not before developed, amply punishes him for all the woes he has heaped upon unlucky Patsy. The very morning when the Sykes' family depart for the yacht, by a curious coincident. Patsy secures the position of deck hand, but when the family comes aboard he does not recognize any of them, by previous secret agreement with Jane. Later in the day the party comes to an island and goes ashore for luncheon. After intentionally burning his old enemy, Grace, with hot coffee, and drenching Sykesy with a siphon of seltzer, he is sent aboard of the boat. Arriving at the landing, he finds there a clergyman who is anxious to go aboard of her, and he welcomes him. Jane steals away from the luncheon party, and before she can be caught by her pursuing brother, Patsy hurries her aboard the yacht. Just as it is moving away from the landing Grace and Sykesy, attempt to board her when they are drawn into the water, and while they are being rescued Patsy and Jane are being married by the accommodating clergyman.Patsy Bolivar No. 13
- DirectorPercy WinterStarsClarence ElmerPatsy De ForestWilliam RausherFour years have passed since Patsy's marriage. He has been blessed with twins, and has become a prosperous berry farmer. Sykesy's marriage has been an unhappy one, and his inability to earn a living have drawn him and Tilly further away from each other. When the landlord comes to collect his rent or evict them, Sykesy decides to secure some kind of employment and strangely enough secures it from his old enemy Patsy, who, in pity for Sykesy's ill luck, magnanimously forgets the past. We see him at work packing berries for his old enemy, while the latter is among the berry rows with his happy wife and twins. We also see that while happiness is deep, so are his troubles as the father of two bouncing girls who demand much more attention than his tiny wife can give them. Then a time comes when the stork is again expected and the care of the children devolves entirely on their father and grandfather a task which they approach bravely and, be it said, successfully, the once irascible Mr. Bolivar having become gentle as a woman in his love for his grandchildren. But Patsy's idea that ill luck has left him forever is turned to despair, when he is presented one early morning with triplets. But they are his very own their little mother is well, and he is satisfied.Patsy Bolivar No. 14
- DirectorLouis FeuilladeStarsMusidoraÉdouard MathéMarcel LévesqueAn intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.
- DirectorHarry HarveyH.M. HorkheimerHenry KingStarsHenry KingRuth RolandEd BradyWho Pays? (1915) was a series of twelve three-reel dramas, released between March and July 1915. Henry King and Ruth Roland starred in each episode, playing different roles each time, with a variety of supporting players who varied from one episode to another. Each episode told a complete and individual story, but they were all inter-related by a uniform theme. Although there were no cliff-hanger endings, each episode did, in fact, end with a challenge to the audience: Who was responsible for the misfortune of the principal characters? The titles of the twelve episodes were: #1: The Price of Fame; #2: The Pursuit of Pleasure; #3: When Justice Sleeps; #4: The Love Liar; #5: Unto Herself Alone; #6: Houses of Glass; #7: Blue Blood and Yellow; #8: Today and Tomorrow; #9: For the Commonwealth; #10: Pomp of Earth; #11: The Fruit of Folly; #12: Toil and Tyranny.
- DirectorLouis J. GasnierLeopold WhartonTheodore WhartonStarsPearl WhiteCreighton HaleArnold DalyEpisode 1: "The Serpent Sign" Miss Elaine Dodge, daughter and heiress of the late Taylor Dodge, whose murder has attracted such world-wide attention, has again had her life seriously threatened. It appears that before the death of Perry Bennett, this modern Dr. Jekyll disclosed the hiding-place of his tremendous fortune to one Long Sin, a Chinese adventurer. Bennett formerly owned the house now occupied by Miss Dodge's Aunt Tabby. On a recent visit to her aunt, Miss Dodge was startled in the early hours of the morning by strange noises. Her aunt had already been aware of this condition, but being superstitious, had put it down to ghosts. Miss Dodge, whose life has lately been one continuous round of self-defense, immediately communicated with Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective whose apprehension of the notorious Clutching Hand caused such favorable comment throughout the land. Kennedy has lately come into the possession of Bennett's papers and his keen eye detected at once the similarity of a plan on one of these and the construction of Aunt Tabby's fireplace. A secret passageway was disclosed, through which the redoubtable sleuth and his assistant descended, only to be overcome by gas, and almost murdered by Long Sin, who had entered the passage from the mouth of a cave in an adjoining woods. Miss Dodge, whose nerve has been put to the test in a hundred cases, alarmed by the fumes, and fearing for the lives of her protectors, descended to the passageway where a queer sight met her eyes. Interviewed to-day by a Journal reporter, Miss Dodge said: "1 had no sooner turned an angle in the passageway when I was almost paralyzed by the sight of Long Sin bending over Craig and Mr. Jameson with a long, murderous knife. A safe embedded in the rock had been opened, and the Chinaman had a small strongbox under his arm. Strength born of love then possessed me, and I closed with the heathen in a struggle that lasted for some minutes. Then I felt my strength desert me; the earth seemed to cave in and crumble all around me and [paper will here appear to have been torn.] Episode 2: "The Cryptic Ring" Elaine becomes the innocent purchaser of a cryptic ring stolen from Wu Fang, for the possession of which this desperate heathen will commit murder many times over. The ring is the key to the hidden millions of the late Perry Bennett, alias Clutching Hand, whose sudden death has left the whereabouts of his tremendous fortune a mystery. Wu Fang seeing the ring on Elaine's finger, decides she is the thief, and in an attempt to recover it, lures her to his rooms, where, but for the timely arrival of her lover and protector, Craig Kennedy, she would have met a horrible death. To make good his escape, Wu Fang has to walk a tight-rope over the yawning chasm between two city skyscrapers, and once over, severs the cable on which Kennedy, hand over hand, is following. However, Kennedy is spared to us for many another hair-raising episode, and Elaine, still ignorant of its value, holds the mysterious cryptic ring. Episode 3: "The Watching Eye" In Wu Fang and Long Sin, Craig Kennedy seems to have found an opposition worthy of his tempered metal. With Blaine kidnapped, and no clue to work on but a meaningless cryptic ring, the great scientific detective feels the necessity for his most concentrated thought. Aunt Josephine is the recipient of a huge vase, at the bottom of which Kennedy finds a note from Elaine, saying that she is as yet unharmed, and instructing him, if he would save her, to deliver the cryptic ring that night in an appointed place. Kennedy forges a ring the counterpart of the original, hoping thereby to trick the crafty Chinamen, but out from the side of the gigantic vase peers the crafty eye of the artful heathen, and unknown to him, Kennedy's plans are blighted in the making. Events then follow quickly. Kennedy in trying to double-cross the Tongs, is himself checkmated, and barely escapes with his life when he goes to barter the fake ring for Elaine. The ring, however, proves the "Open Sesame" to the underground treasure vault of the late Clutching Hand, although a small comfort in consideration of Elaine's probable fate. Episode 4: "The Vengeance of Wu Fang" With Elaine in his power, Wu Fang decides on a vengeance more fiendish than he had ever before contemplated. He releases Elaine, telling her that her ultimate punishment will be more frightful than any bodily injury he can now enact. Slowly, and one by one, he tells her, her dearest friends will die, while she will live on in dread apprehension of a fate that will ultimately overtake her. He then places an African Tick, an insect, whose bite means certain death by a lingering fever, in the 'phone receiver in Kennedy's laboratory. Two fake calls are enough to infect both Jameson and Kennedy, and the malignant fever is working in their blood. A specialist is called in who recognizes the symptoms, and prepares the only drug known to counteract this fatal fever. Wu Fang, seeing that he is about to be foiled, intercepts the specialist's message for a nurse, and sends instead a woman of the underworld to carry out his design. This is to infect whatever instruments the doctors are going to use on Kennedy and Jameson, with a virulent poison. His second failure he must needs credit to Elaine, who, arriving at Kennedy's apartment, and seeing Weepy Mary in the guise of a nurse, immediately denounces her to the company as a notorious criminal. Weepy Mary makes her escape in the excitement, and Elaine is installed as nurse of the men to whom she owes her life many times over. Episode 5: "The Saving Circles" A new ally of Wu Fang, the serpent, is an aviator in his plane circling ominously above Craig Kennedy's house. Balanced in the reckless flyer's palm is a bomb of Trodite, the new super-force in explosives. The bird-man looks for a painted circle as the prearranged target for his agent of destruction. He sees it. Straight to the mark goes the infernal death dealer. A startling white flash, a million splinters, an unrecognizable body, and far off on the horizon the fast fading outline of the modern bird of prey. Tense, expectant, shocked, but ultimately triumphant, the detective who harnesses Science in his pursuit of Crime stands watching at the window of his laboratory. He knew about the aeroplane; he knew that the Government had been robbed of the ultra powerful Trodite; he knew of the large white circle that was to mark his house as the object of attack. He knew also that directly across the court one of Wu Fang's henchmen was spying upon him. That's why, in the dead of night, he and his assistant Jameson ascended to the roof where they scrubbed out the fateful circle. That's why they ever so quietly ascended to the roof of the house directly across the court and painted thereon a large white circle the counterpart of the one recently scrubbed off, and that's why, when the detonation came, the fragments of what was once a Chinaman mixed with the fragments of what was once a house, and left Craig Kennedy shaken, but sound. Did you ever see an aeroplane high in the heavens get hit with a steel jacketed shell projected from an armored automobile? Did you ever see a death duel between a terror of the skies and a gun constructed especially to bring it down? Here you see the aeroplane get hit, shiver as though in startled hesitation, make a final desperate struggle to keep afloat, and finally descend in circles, fluttering helpless, like a wounded bird, to the ground. These are some of the awe-inspiring incidents to be seen in this episode. Episode 6: "Spontaneous Combustion" His constant failure to accomplish the death of both Elaine and her protector, Craig Kennedy, makes Wu Fang only the more persistent. Money means nothing to him. His enormous wealth enables him to carry out the most elaborate plans for the death of the hated detective and his fair-haired sweetheart. His followers know no word other than their masters, and his Oriental craftiness enables him to keep well out of the law's reach. He secures a corrupt young girl to help him carry out a plot as fiendish as it is intricate. A fake attack on the girl in front of Elaine's window is excuse for the girl's sad story, which so touches Elaine and her aunt that they take her into their service. Acting on the chemical principle of spontaneous combustion, Wu Fang rigs up a trick chair to hold fast whoever sits in it, and eventually burn its occupant to death. This chair is shipped to the Dodge home, where the new maid receives it and has it put up in the garret, knowing that Elaine will go there shortly to make a selection of her dresses for a charity gift. Meanwhile, Kennedy learns of the joint in which Wu Fang hides himself from the outer world, and disguised as a heathen goes there to smoke a pipe. How he is tricked by the cunning Wu Fang, how he learns of Elaine's imminent peril, how he manages to outwit the crafty Celestial, and rescue Elaine from the most frightful death, is all so graphically pictured on the screen that a word description fails utterly in its purpose. Episode 7: "The Ear in the Wall" Wu Fang, the Chinese master criminal, knows the charm of Elaine, and knows also the danger of her ready wit. He sends her a box of roses, half white and half red, with a fiendish note attached giving her a choice as to who shall die first, Craig Kennedy, or her Aunt Josephine. Elaine is terror-stricken, but Kennedy, all unknown to her, flashes the red roses in the window, as the signal that they have chosen his life as the first to be attempted. The signal is noted and the deadly machinery of Wu Fang set in motion. Kennedy prepares for what he knows will be an ingenious attack. He sprays his hall-mat directly outside his door with a fluid that will photograph whosoever's foot steps on it. Wu Fang, by means of a method of wiring, connects a detectaphone between Kennedy's room and the cellar, where, with bis henchmen, he hears Kennedy's 'phone instructions to police headquarters, ordering a raid on Long Sin and Innocent Inez, the demi-monde. Wu Fang communicates with Long Sin in time to forestall the police, who, when they arrive, find an empty apartment. Kennedy knows that his instructions must have been overheard, so, using a galvaniscope he detects the wiring in the hall, and knows that Wu Fang is listening at the other end of the wire, somewhere nearby. The super-grip of this episode is in how he tricks the wily Oriental at his own game. It's too good to give away in the synopsis. Episode 8: "The Opium Smugglers" Wu Fang, the serpent, kidnaps Elaine's chauffeur, and substitutes in his place one of his henchmen. Craig Kennedy, disguised, searching Chinatown for a trace of Wu Fang, is met by Capt. Brainerd, of the U.S. Secret Service. Brainerd is trying to locate a band of opium smugglers who are going to "pull off a trick" that night. Kennedy points out a passing Chinaman who he knows keeps an opium joint. Together they track him to a dingy apartment, where they find and overpower three Chinamen receiving messages via carrier pigeons from the captain of a tramp sloop. They learn where the sloop is lying, and start out in a revenue cutter to apprehend it. Meanwhile, Wu Fang, through his underling the chauffeur, kidnaps Elaine, whom he intends to slip abroad the smuggler's sloop for shipment to Shanghai, where she is to be sold. The opium is unloaded, and Elaine carried to the ship. Kennedy, Brainerd, and Jameson, after a sharp fight, capture the Chinamen guarding the opium and load the stuff into their boat, before starting to run down the smuggler's ship. Elaine, aboard ship, uses the wireless telephone Kennedy has provided her with, and apprises him of her predicament. She flashes a lantern from the porthole, and Kennedy's boat makes for it. She flees from the Oriental set to guard her and climbs a rope ladder to the dizzy height of the topmast. He follows, a knife in his teeth. She makes a startling leap into the dark waters and he after her. It is a race for life in the fathomless ocean, with the Chinaman gaining at every stroke. He overtakes her and is about to strike when a shot from the racing revenue cutter kills him. Elaine is rescued, and the smuggler's ship captured. Episode 9: "The Tell-Tale Heart" Jameson, Kennedy's assistant, follows Innocent Inez, one of Wu Fang's confederates, to her apartment where he attempts to question her. She touches a knob in the table carvings and an iron bar swings out from the wall behind Jameson and knocks him unconscious. Inez then sends a gypsy confederate to tell Elaine's fortune, and to incidentally bind Elaine's eyes with a handkerchief holding in its seam a vial containing a spark of radium. Inez has been instructed by Wu Fang that the proximity of the radium to Elaine's eyes for three minutes will be sufficient to blind her. Kennedy, informed previously by 'phone of Jameson's destination, follows him and when he arrives is assaulted in the same way as was his assistant. Jameson's glove on the floor attracts his attention and he stoops to pick it up just as the murderous bar swings out from the wall to strike him. Inez is overpowered and Jameson is found. A 'phone message to Inez from Wu Fang reveals Elaine's peril, and Kennedy and Jameson arrive at the Dodge home. They are relieved to discover that Elaine, in binding her eyes, substituted her own handkerchief for the one furnished by the gypsy. Inez is taken to Kennedy's laboratory, where the sphygmograph is applied while Kennedy repeats certain house numbers in the Chinatown district. Wu Fang is known to live in that vicinity and Kennedy realizes that when his house number is repeated, it will cause a quicker pulsation of Inez's blood. Wu Fang, knowing of Inez's predicament, makes a sensational rescue, but Kennedy "has his number," and the next episode promises thrilling situations. Episode 10: "Shadows of War" Wu Fang is approached by secret agents who commission him to secure at any price the model torpedo invented by Craig Kennedy, and in the possession of the United States Government. Wu Fang sets his machinery in motion and awaits results. In the meantime Kennedy, apprised by his agents of Wu Fang's hiding place, goes there with Jameson and by a piece of remarkable strategy, succeeds in capturing him. Wu Fang is wounded and taken to a hospital, where he manages to substitute another Oriental in his place and makes his escape. He meets his henchman coming in from Washington with the stolen torpedo model. The only other model in existence is one in Kennedy's possession, Kennedy is demonstrating its use in a fountain in the Dodge Conservatory. A momentary distraction gives Wu Fang's lieutenant opportunity to steal this model. He starts away with it, but is seen by the butler, who gives chase. Seeing he is likely to be apprehended, he quickly hides the torpedo model in a large flower-pot, and escapes, wounded to a waiting automobile. Kennedy commandeers another car, and follows. In the enthralling game of wits that follows Wu Fang is killed and the whereabouts of Kennedy becomes a matter of serious conjecture. END
- DirectorFrancis FordStarsGrace CunardFrancis FordEddie PoloEpisode 1: "The Broken Coin" Kitty Grey, a reporter, leaves her office for lunch. On her way to the restaurant she sees in an old curiosity shop half of a broken coin, inscribed in Latin. The name "Gretzhoffen" attracts her attention, and she buys the coin. On her way out of the shop she drops the papers she is carrying, which are picked up and handed to her by a foreign-looking man, who had been watching the coin before Kitty came along. Kitty goes on her way and the man enters the shop to buy the coin. He is told by the proprietor that the young lady who just left the shop bought it. Kitty, thinking she has material for a good story, forgets about lunch and goes to her room for an old article she has written regarding the poverty-stricken Kingdom of Gretzhoffen, and with the aid of a Latin grammar, translates the inscription on the coin, which reads: "Underneath flagstone of north corner torture cham he found treasures valuable s the kingd Gretzhoffen Mi." Tis arouses her imagination to such an extent that she hurries back to her office and asks the editor to give her three months to go to Gretzhoffen and locate the other half of the coin. In the meantime the mysterious looking foreigner has followed Kitty to her home, entered her room while she was at the office and ransacked everything in general, looking for the coin which Kitty, at that moment, had in a chamois bag around her neck. He leaves, disgusted. Everything ready for her departure, Kitty goes aboard the boat, where she comes face to face with the foreigner. After dinner Kitty falls asleep in her stateroom, after making sure that the half coin is safe. She awakens suddenly to glimpse the profile of a man at the porthole of her compartment. He disappears as she sits up. Realizing something is wrong, Kitty, after making sure no one is watching her, takes the coin, her passport and other valuables from the bag and hides them in her stocking. After another cautious survey she returns to bed. Sometime later she is awakened to find a hand holding her chamois bag disappear through the porthole. She runs to the porthole just in time to see the form of a man disappear around the bow of the boat. Realizing the bag contained only her handkerchief and an American half-dollar, and that the coin is safe in her stocking, Kitty locks the porthole and retires for the night. She sees no more of the strange foreigner, and arrives safe in Gretzhoffen. On investigating, with the help of the American Consul, Kitty finds that the Kingdom of Gretzhoffen is a very poor little principality, ruled by a puppet king, Michael the Second, who is under the power of a supposed friend, Count Frederick. Frederick, in reality, is the pretender to the throne occupied by the puppet, and uses Michael, under the guise of friendship, to further his own plans and to ascend to the throne of Gretzhoffen. The financial straits of the little kingdom are due to the fact that gold scripts and jewels belonging to Michael's father, the old King Michael the First, have been missing since the death of the old king, and the only clue to the missing valuables is half of a broken coin, inscribed in Latin, and given to the present king by an old servant of Michael the First's on his, the servant's, deathbed. Michael, the puppet, has, after a fashion, tried to locate the other half of the coin. Count Frederick, knowing of the coin and its value, procures it, through the aid of his valet and accomplice, Grahame, and determines to find the other half, dethrone Michael, and ascend the throne, a rich ruler of Gretzhoffen. Thanking the consul for the information, Kitty bids him good-day and strikes out for the hotel. In the meantime, Roleau, the foreigner who followed Kitty on her trip and is, in reality, a hireling of the unscrupulous Frederick, reports to his employer with the bag he has obtained from Kitty on board the liner. Frederick is greatly angered at finding the bag minus the precious half coin and beats the cringing Roleau. Frederick, quickly forgetting Roleau, sets about to find another way to get the coin. Kitty, in a taxi on her way home, sees a man stagger from the back door of a fashionable house, trying to cover his blood-stained face with his coat sleeve, and stopping her car near the man, she gets out and tries to help him.
- DirectorRobert EllisJohn MackinHamilton SmithStarsMarguerite CourtotRichard PurdonEdward RosemanAs heiress to a large fortune, Marguerite is able to satisfy her love for beautiful clothes and a taste for adventure, while confronted by a multitude of schemers and gangsters bent on reducing her to poverty.
- DirectorGeorge B. SeitzLeopold WhartonTheodore WhartonStarsPearl WhiteCreighton HaleLionel BarrymoreEpisode 1: "The Lost Torpedo" Craig Kennedy's marvelous invention, a super-force torpedo to revolutionize warfare, has been stolen. Kennedy himself has disappeared, although Elaine has a note from him begging her not to grieve whatever happens, for he is safe. And then, one night, on a barren strip of land jutting out into the Atlantic, a fisherman, concealed behind a rock, sees the periscope of a submarine rise; sees a man's head and shoulders rise seemingly out of the sea, and sees a pair of athletic arms strike out bravely for the shore. That night, at a hotel in New York, a distinguished-looking foreigner, much resembling the man who seemed to rise up out of the sea, is shadowed by a fussy old gentleman resembling the fisherman of the coast scenes. The foreigner goes out and the fussy old gentleman goes to his room, where, after a short, sharp struggle with a valet, he searches through all drawers and papers. One paper he pockets with glee, and then departs. Elaine and Jameson are visited by the distinguished-looking foreigner who tells them he is a secret service agent from Washington, and begs to get information with regard to Kennedy and the lost torpedo. Elaine's dog, digging with its forepaws in a pot of palms, unearths the lost torpedo and carries it to the attic, where he drops it behind a trunk. The torpedo's propeller, however, has been left in the palm-pot. where Marcius Del Mar, the foreigner, finds it. Elaine is suspected by him of having concealed the torpedo. The fussy old gentleman, in Del Mar's tracks since he left his rooms, is an interested spectator. He is unaware that Del Mar has spies guarding the house, and is set upon by them. Rushing madly into the conservatory, he faces Del Mar. Both draw their guns, but the fussy old gentleman fires first. His gun is loaded with bullets containing an overpowering gas. Both Del Mar and Elaine fall suffocated to the floor. How the fussy old gentleman escapes is a fitting climax to this episode.
- DirectorJacques JaccardWilliam Desmond TaylorStarsLottie PickfordIrving CummingsWilliam RussellThis serial told the story of the diamond heir loom of the Stanley family.
- DirectorWilliam BertramW.M. HarveyStarsWilliam Courtleigh Jr.Lillian LorraineWilliam ConklinA former Annapolis cadet is thrown out of the Naval Academy for cheating on an exam. Of course he was framed, but he must enlist in the Navy to clear himself. Meanwhile he and his sweetheart search for a buried treasure on Lost Island, which everyone is after.
- DirectorOtis TurnerStarsHerbert RawlinsonAnn LittleWilliam WorthingtonWith the help of futuristic technical inventions, a private detective investigates a bizarre murder case involving mysterious messages delivered in a small black box by the killer.
- DirectorGeorge PearsonStarsAurelio SidneyJ.L.V. LeighA. Caton WoodvilleUltus, a man left for dead, returns to seek revenge on his scheming partner.
- DirectorGeorge PearsonStarsFrank DaneMary DibleyM. GoujetA girl helps the 'Avenger' trace a betrayer, the man who killed her father.
- DirectorGeorge PearsonStarsAurelio SidneyManora ThewCharles RockHaving made a daring escape from the Old Bailey, Ultus becomes involved in the case of the kidnapping of a Cabinet Minister by the agents of a Foreign Power, aided by faithful assistant Dick and the star-struck Elsie Meredith. But Elsie's role is not to be quite what she expects...
- DirectorGeorge PearsonStarsLionel d'AragonFrank DaneMary DibleyUltus is still being pursued by detective Conway Bass and decides to hide out in disguise in a quiet country village, but he hears stories from the local children of a ghost haunting a mysterious manor. Little daunted, he investigates and discovers that the source of the screams is a mistreated little girl whom he determines to rescue from her abductors...
- DirectorJames W. HorneStarsRuth RolandCleo RidgelyMarin SaisA series of 2-reel thrillers in which a society girl has a position as a special investigator for the police and works on various cases where her unique talents can help to solve crimes. Each episode is complete in itself.
- DirectorRalph InceStarsAnita StewartEarle WilliamsPaul ScardonA young girl is reared on a desert island by natives and led to believe that she is a goddess. One day an outsider comes to the island, and persuades her to accompany him to preach about the kindness and love she has experienced. She agrees, but she's soon confronted by the problems and travails of the "outside" world.
- DirectorJames W. HorneStarsTrue BoardmanMarin SaisPaul HurstIn the Australian outback, a young woman falls for a dashing bandit known as Stingaree, who is actually a wealthy Englishman cheated out of his fortune by his greedy brother.
- DirectorSherwood MacDonaldStarsRuth RolandFrank MayoPhilo McCulloughThe Red Circle is a birthmark, on the hand of the heroine, noticeable only in times of stress and excitement, which forces her to steal, leading to no end of complications and intrigue.
- DirectorOscar EagleStarsNorma PhillipsJack W. JohnstonDora Mills AdamsEpisode 1: "The Runaway Bride" It is June Moore's wedding day, and the entire household is all confusion, excitement, and bustle, from June's pet collie Donnie to her father, uncomfortable and perspiring in his Prince Albert. Her bosom friend Iris Blethering, accompanied by her husband Bobbie, arrives to help June with her toilette, and a few moments later Ned Warner, the happy bridegroom, arrives. There is a short duration of nervous expectancy as Ned awaits the bride in the parlor, then June enters at the head of the bridal procession, and the ceremony commences. Just at the finish, Donnie, the collie, escaping from confinement in the woodshed, races into the parlor and June, regardless of her spotless white wedding gown, throws her arms about him. After the wedding June's wedding garment is hastily put aside and she dons a traveling suit, while Ned. seeking to avoid the pranks of the guests, steals out onto the porch to await her. Upstairs, Mrs. Moore tearfully embraces June, in the last sacred moment of parting, then presses a purse filled with money into her hands. June, surprised, pouts, "Why do I have to think of money on my wedding day?" but hurries out to Ned, who has been discovered by the guests and is being teased unmercifully. June and Ned make a dash for their limousine and escape amid a shower of rice. In a drawing room on the train rapidly bearing the happy bride and groom off on their honeymoon, June contentedly nestles in Ned's arms. By accident, June discovers that she has lost her purse, and when Ned hears her exclamation of dismay he laughingly produces his bulky "roll" with bluff heartiness, and quiets her fears. The porter, catching sight of Ned's roll, almost loses his eyes staring at it, and Ned, smiling, tips him a dollar bill. Ned tries to force some money into June's hand, but she draws away. In fancy she sees herself a beggar, helpless, dependent upon Ned's generosity to supply her every want and necessity, and the thought is repugnant to her. Ned leaves the drawing room to dress as June falls asleep. Her dreams are troubled, and continually picture the woman absolutely dependent for money upon the man. She wakes as the train jars to a stop at Tarnville, and in a daze rushes from the train, pausing long enough just to take her coat and hat, and stands trembling and confused on the platform as the train rushes away. Gilbert Blye was about to board the train when he saw June get off. He immediately drew back, and now, as June stands afraid, he stands aside, watching her sharply. June decides to return to New York, and finds the time of the next train on the bulletin board. Blye attempts to engage June in conversation, but is repulsed. Meanwhile, Ned discovers June's absence, and learns from a passenger that she left the train at Tarnville. Distracted, he gets off at the next station and takes an express back to New York, first learning over the telephone from the operator at Tarnville that June was seen to board the New York local, followed by a man with a black Vandyke. The operator tells Ned that the express sometimes passes the local just outside of New York. On the local, June finds she has no money, and sells her watch to an elderly couple. With this money, June pays her fare. The mysterious man with the black Vandyke buys the watch from the couple, and tenders it to June as a gift. She refuses to accept it, and he tells her that she may purchase it back when she is able. She takes the card he hands her, pockets it, and then refuses to notice him further. Smiling mysteriously, he takes the seat behind her and watches her. Just outside New York the express catches the local and they race along, side by side. Through a window, Ned sees the figure of June. Over her bends the black Vandyked man, assisting her on with her coat. In the station Ned frantically runs out to the street, just in time to have the door of Blye's taxi slammed in his face, and see June's taxi disappearing up the street. He jumps into a third taxi, and frantically orders his driver, "Follow them!" Episode 2: "The Man with the Black Vandyke" Through the busy streets of New York, Gilbert Blye, the mysterious man with the black Vandyke, pursues June, and in pursuit of both races the taxi of Ned Warner, June's distracted husband. In the maze of traffic, Blye loses track of June's taxi, and Ned, getting caught in a congestion of traffic, also loses the trail. To the home of Iris Blethering, her bosom friend, goes June for safety. Iris and her husband, Bobbie, cannot understand June's reason for leaving Ned, just because he offered her money, and poor June looks at Iris with a helpless gesture and half sobs, "I can't explain, it made me feel like a beggar taking alms." Still Iris does not appreciate June's viewpoint. At the club lives Cunningham, a comrade of Blye's, and, like him, a man of mystery. To Cunningham Blye goes and relates the account of his meeting with June, and shows the watch which June sold on the train. Ned Warner goes to the apartment that was to have been the home of his bride and himself. Meanwhile, Iris Blethering offers June some money, but June refuses it, and tells Iris that her purse is at home. Iris and Bobbie go to the Moore home to get June's purse, telling Mrs. Moore that June wired them to get her purse and forward it. Soon after the Bletherings leave, Ned calls at the Moore home, and June's parents are surprised to learn that June is not with him. They tell him of the Blethering's visit, and all hurry there, seeking a solution of the mystery. They arrive at the Blethering home, but Bobbie and Iris deny the presence of June. Ned, however, finds one of Blye's cards, and June's gloves, and furiously accuses the Bletherings of hiding both June and Blye. At Rectors Blye, Cunningham, Tommy Thomas, a girl companion of Blye, and several others form a merry party, drinking and dancing. The diners seek to arouse Tommy Thomas' jealousy by describing June's watch, which Blye has in his possession. Meantime, at the Blethering home, events have followed rapidly. While Ned and Bobbie are arguing in the hall downstairs, June escapes through a window. A few moments later Ned and the rest break into the room. There is no trace of June, so the next move is a visit to the Blye home, where Mrs. Blye is questioned. Mr. Moore indignantly demands, "I want my daughter." This arouses Mrs. Blye's suspicion. She calls up Cunningham's club and learns that she is with Blye at Rectors. Thereupon the party rushes to Rectors. Mrs. Blye bursts in, followed by the others, and catches her husband dancing with Tommy Thomas. She furiously demands, "Who is that woman?" but Blye flares up and refuses to answer her. Blye makes his way to the street and escapes in Cunningham's car, giving the chauffeur a mysterious address. June, meanwhile, has made her way to the Moore home and after petting her pet collie for a few moments, awakens Marie, her maid, collects her wardrobe together, and steals away with Marie. June and Marie get into a taxi at the Moore gate, and just drive away as Blye, in Cunningham's car, drives up, then follows in hot pursuit. A moment later Ned, and the rest, in two autos, drive up and are directed after Blye's car by Aunt Debby, the Moore's old colored servant. Through the darkness the pursued and pursuing autos race. Episode 3: "Discharged" In the preceding Installment, June, the runaway bride, escaped from her parents' home with Marie, her maid, and some of her wardrobe. Close in pursuit of June's taxi came Gilbert Blye, the man with the black Vandyke, and away in the rear followed Ned Warner, June's deserted husband, and several others. Speeding at a breakneck pace, Blye, in the Cunningham limousine, passes June's taxi, and then breaks up a bottle which he has in the car and drops the bits of broken glass to the roadway. The ruse works; the taxi has a blowout. Blye's car backs to the scene, and Blye gallantly offers June the use of his machine. After some hesitation, June accepts the offer, and has Marie take the clothes from the taxi and put them into the other car. The taxi is wheeled to the side of the road, to be out of the way, then the limousine drives off. Blye, in the car, pretends to just recognize June as the little girl he met on the train, and he feigns pleasant surprise. June, doubtful, wishes to buy her watch back immediately, but Blye tells her that he left it home. At his club, Blye alights and puts the car at June's service, but mysteriously whispers instructions to Scatti, the driver. Scatti nods, and in answer to June's orders to drive her to a boarding house, takes her to Mother Russell's, a mysterious house of gaiety and bright lights. But June decides that the place is too conspicuous, and gives Scatti the address of an obscure boarding house which she is familiar with. There they go, and June engages a room for herself and Marie. Scatti, grinning slyly, takes note of the place and drives away. Meanwhile, the cars containing Ned and his party pursuing June and Blye, encounter the glass-strewn section of the roadway and are delayed by blowouts, and hopelessly lose the trail. They finally come to the city and disperse to their various homes, Ned summoning private detectives to put on the case. Mrs. Blye reaches her home in time to see her husband going away with his effects, and, realizing that she is deserted, summons private detectives to watch her husband. Blye and Cunningham go to Mother Russell's, and there hold a conference with Tommy Thomas, showing her June's watch with her picture and name, Tommy sulks, but finally agrees to do their bidding. Tommy Thomas calls at June's boarding house on the following morning, tells that a friend of June's sent her to June about a position, and takes June to a department store and introduces her to the manageress of the gown department, whispering to her, "This is the girl Mr. Blye spoke about for the model." The woman smiles in approval as she looks at June, and immediately employs her. June grows interested in her work, parading before the wealthy customers, but through a prearranged plan of Cunningham, Blye and Tommy Thomas, she is discharged, charged with neglecting her duty, for, interested in an argument over money matters between a man and his wife, the eternal "money question" which was the cause of her running away from Ned, she neglects to heed Cunningham's request to be shown a gown. Dejected, she returns to her boarding house. Meanwhile, the private detectives of Ned and Mrs. Blye have been sadly mixing things up, and Ned, disgusted, goes for a walk. He sees Marie and tracks her to the boarding house. Blye has preceded him there and is in the hall. Marie, conscious that Ned is following her, rushes into the house. Ned is admitted in time to see Blye rushing up the stairway, but the man of mystery eludes Ned and leaves the house, close on June's trail, leaving Ned frantic and heartbroken. Episode 4 "The New Governess" June's headquarters at Mrs. Beales' boarding-house became known to both Ned Warner and Gilbert BIye. Fortunately June realizes this. Leaving Marie to gather up their belongings, the runaway bride hurries to a nearby hotel, telling her maid to follow. She is pursued at a safe distance by Blye. As June enters the Hotel Daniel "Shanks" McGee, the newsboy in the lobby, scents "detecatiff" stuff. Later, when both Blye and Ned in turn appear, the latter demanding to see her, the boy decides to use his wits in the game at the first opportunity. Meanwhile, the bell-boy also has been catching on to things. So he goes up to June's room and suggests his mother's home as a safe retreat. June gladly accepts the plan, and with the bell-boy's help she escapes through the servants' entrance. Below stairs Ned's and Mrs. Blye's detectives have insulted a Frenchman with a black Vandyke, whom they mistake for Gilbert Blye. After they are gone "Shanks" McGee, seeing Blye himself enter the hotel with "Tommy" Thomas on his arm, puts two and two together, tears after the detectives and tells them that the man they are seeking is now in the lobby. But Blye, though taken by surprise, is more than a match for the detectives. With three well-directed piston-like blows he sends them sprawling, and then he and "Tommy" Thomas, having learned of June's escape, leave the place. June, meanwhile, through an employment agency has found a position as governess to little Dolly Wiles. She is very happily occupied until Mr. Wiles, through the extravagance of Mrs. Wiles, who is a pretty, vapid, money-loving sort of wife, goes bankrupt. Then she returns to the employment agency. Entering, she does not see Gilbert Blye, who quickly steps behind a screen. The address given her by the manageress is one which the man with the black Vandyke has handed to the woman with explicit instructions only five minutes previously. Episode 5: "A Woman in Trouble" In the preceding installment June, the runaway bride, was sent to a mysterious house by an employment agency, and followed by Gilbert Blye, the man with the black Vandyke. June is shown into what was apparently once the parlor of a gambling house, but is now fitted up as an office. Blye and the keeper of the house peer smilingly at her through the hall door. Then the keeper enters, and after a short chat with June, hires her. Aunt Debby, the Moore's cook, goes marketing, and meets Marie, June's maid, who is also marketing. There is a scene in the market, Marie denying that she knows Aunt Debby. But the old servant will not easily be put off, and she wrestles with Marie, knocks her down, and sits on her. Several policemen, hearing the commotion, enter, and arrest Aunt Debby. The patrol is summoned, but the policemen, to their great chagrin, find that the door of the wagon is not of ample size to permit of the free passage of Aunt Debby's corpulent frame. Marie does not like to see Aunt Debby arrested, and when Officer Dowd. Marie's friend, appears, she whispers to him, and he gets the other officers to let Aunt Debby go free. Aunt Debby hurries to Ned, the deserted husband of June, and he, summoning his detectives, rushes to the market to endeavor to take up Marie's trial, but to no avail. June is instructed in her duties by the keeper, and is horrified when it dawns upon her that the place is a gambling establishment. Mrs. Gwen Perry, a patron of the place, finds herself hopelessly in debt, and her husband will not give her any money over her allowance. The keeper duns her for her debt, but Mrs. Perry cannot pay. The keeper then calls up Mr. Perry, but he, furious, threatens to raid the place. The keeper informs Blye of the threat, and one of the girl employees is sent to the basement to be in readiness to start a fire, if a raid takes place. Mr. Perry enters, and has an argument with the keeper, at length telling him to call Mrs. Perry. It is evident that he is through with his wife, but June, summoning her courage, takes an active interest in this new phase of the eternal money question which caused her to leave Ned, and pleads with Mr. Perry. He at length relents, but Mrs. Perry, entering the room and seeing him, is seized with sudden panic, flees, and is about to shoot herself, when June intervenes. Mr. Perry takes her into his arms, and there is a happy reconciliation. At this moment some policemen appear at the door, and the fire is started. A mad rush from the house follows, June escaping with the rest in the confusion. But Blye picks up her trail, and follows her through the streets. Ned, on a streetcar, sees June running along, and Blye pursuing her, and he hastily alights from the car and pursues. Episode 6: "The Siege of the House of O'Keefe" As June is fleeing from the gambling house, she is glimpsed by Ned from a streetcar. But the conductor refuses to stop in the middle of the block, and by the time Warner has alighted and rushed back, the runaway bride is nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile she has reached in safety the home of Mrs. O'Keefe, the hotel bellboy's mother, and her protector. Mrs. O'Keefe, being the widow of the most popular patrolman on New York's police force, instructs some of her departed husband's friends, whose beats are in that neighborhood, that Marie and June are good friends of hers, who do not wish to be found. When Blye and Warner appear in the vicinity and question the policemen about a young girl, they are deliberately sent on a wild goose chase. But, as so often before, Blye at length calls upon Tommy Thomas. She drives around to the neighborhood, in which the man with the black Vandyke has reason to believe his quarry is in hiding, and is lucky enough to see June coming out of Mrs. O'Keefe's. Already Tommy Thomas has arranged with a Mrs. Villard, who wants a companion, to let her bring June to her. She invites the runaway bride into her car, and they drive to an employment agency with which Tommy Thomas has had an understanding. The farce is put through, and June is taken to the magnificent estate of Mrs. Villard, a young and handsome woman of clearly good intentions. That same evening June has an adventure. She overhears some tenants of Mrs. Villard's quarreling, and hurries over to the squalid home of the Groggs. She finds Groggs in a drunken frenzy, his wife beside herself, hurling pots and pans. And then June lets herself go and her fiery denunciation of the drunkard soon sobers Groggs. He promises to reform, and the runaway bride realizes that there was but another symptom of the man-wife-money problem, which so besets her. Returning to Mr. Villard's house to dinner, June meets Charles Cunningham. Tommy Thomas also is one of the guests. Once, she fancies, she sees through the velvet curtains of the room the somber visage of the man with black Vandyke. Episode 7: "The Tormentors" June returns to Mrs. O'Keefe's for her clothing and Marie. Scarcely have they taken their farewells of the widow when Ned Warner, the Moores and the Bletherings arrive to find the detectives and the policemen battling on the stoop, and no sign of the runaway bride. Meanwhile the two girls have driven to Mrs. Villard's. Unknown to them, Gilbert Blye is in the house. He observes their arrival with satisfaction, and as soon as the girls have gone upstairs he instructs their hostess and leaves. That afternoon Mrs. Villard tells June that they are going downtown. She takes her unsuspecting companion to Garrigue and Co., marine brokers. There she explains to her that Mr. Blye is planning a yachting trip to southern waters and that he has invited them to join the party. This announcement throws June into a panic. She refuses to go. Presently Blye, Cunningham and Edwards reach the office, Tommy Thomas with them. All their efforts to persuade June, however, are vain. Across the court, Bobby Blethering from his office window sees June arguing with the man with the black Vandyke. He phones Ned. Before the distraught bridegroom can get there, June and Mrs. Villard are fleeing in a taxi, pursued by Blye and his companions in Cunningham's limousine. Episode 8: "Her Enemies" The taxi, in which June and Mrs. Villard were escaping kept steadily ahead of Cunningham's car. Suddenly the conspirators saw it plunge across a sidewalk and down a steep embankment. They sped to overtake the demolished machine. Blye and Cunningham went to the rescue of June. Edwards and Tommy Thomas helped Mrs. Villard. Both women were unconscious and were carried to a sanitarium, where a Dr. Remert took them in charge. When June recovered she found a confidante in Mary, the head nurse. Finding that she was suffering mainly from shock, her spirits revived, began to talk with the nurse about the possibility of her entering Mary's vocation. Dr. Remert approved and promised to speak to the chief about June. It developed that "the chief" was none other than Gilbert Blye. June refused to have anything to do with the hospital and was persuaded to return home with Mrs. Villard, as her companion. Meanwhile, Ned's detective, Burton, had been putting in some good work. He had traced Blve to his club, seen him in conference with Mr. Villard, who suddenly returned to New York, and the result was that on the evening the Villard party was motoring home Ned Warner lay in wait near the estate. Just as he would have intercepted the automobile in which rode Blye, June, Mrs. Villard and the others, two pairs of strong arms reached out and seized him. The motor rushed past. Episode 9: "Kidnapped" Concealed in the shrubbery outside of the Villard home, Ned rises to snatch his bride from the man with the black Van Dyke when he is seized by the Villard chauffeur and the gardener and Marie, June's maid. He is quickly bound and gagged and thrown into the Villard garage. He struggles to free himself as he sees June chatting sociably with Gilbert Blye and Orin Cunningham. Bert Villard, husband of June's employer, arrives unexpectedly from abroad. Ned's captors indulge in a card game and drinking bout which enables him to wriggle free from his bonds and escape when they sink into a drunken stupor. Meanwhile June has finally consented to go on the proposed yachting trip. Marie, stricken with remorse over Ned's fate, tries to tell June of his capture, but cannot. Mrs. Villard's husband, finding June alone, seizes her in a wild embrace and covers her face with kisses. "Bouncer," June's faithful collie, comes to the rescue, fells Villard, bites him and would kill him but for June's interference. She makes Villard promise not to go on the yachting trip, the price of her silence to his wife. Ned escapes just in time to see June driving away with the gay yachting party, tracing them to a restaurant, where June is forced from the room, while she is trying to go to Ned, afterward being rapidly conveyed on a motorboat to a large yacht lying in the river. Episode 10: "Trapped on a Liner" Gilbert Blye and his party go aboard the steamer which they have chartered for the trip to Bermuda. Ned Warner and Burton, his detective, also board the boat. They practice the policy of watchful waiting. Soon Ned is informed by Burton that June is sitting alone on the lower deck. He hurries below. Suddenly Blye, from where he is sitting, sees the runaway bride in her husband's arms. He goes to the captain and tells him that a crazy man has attacked one of the ladies of his party. The next thing Ned knows he is struggling in the grasp of two husky sailors. June is in hysterics. Ned, locked in his stateroom, is unable to escape until just before the landing in Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda. Here he is seized by two sailors. The three men fight furiously. Finally Warner is backed up against the rail. and then, by accident, pushed overboard. A practiced swimmer, he strikes out toward a small fishing craft, calling for help. The fishermen take him aboard. When first they hear that Ned is over the side of the ship, June and Blye are about equally horror-stricken. The news of his rescue, however, calms them both. June is inspired to refuse to land, but Blye compels her to do so. Burton, following them, learns the name of their yacht and their route. This he confides to Ned as soon as that unfortunate young man sets foot on the pier. But how are they to board the yacht? Episode 11: "In the Clutch of the River Thieves" On arriving at Bermuda, June and Blye's party leave the steamer for Blye's yacht, but Blye, the man with the black Van Dyke, returns to the dock, where he encounters Ned, the deserted husband, who was rescued by fishermen after jumping off the steamer to avoid capture. Ned violently attacks him and is getting the better of him when the local police arrest Ned on Blye's statement that he is a dangerous maniac and place him in a small jail near the water. June escapes from the yacht at night in a tender and rows for the shore, but is discovered and pursued by the yachting party. Fearful of capture, June signals a sailboat, which is manned by an old Italian, Giovanni, who takes her aboard. He points out an old wreck and says he was wrecked there twenty years ago. She reminds him of Marietta, back in Italy. He tells her the story of Marietta and her two lovers, how she favored Tony, the one who spent the most money on her. Tony quarreled with Beppo, another of Marietta's admirers, and in a duel with knives succeeded in killing him, after which he ran away with Marietta. Blye's yacht gives chase under full sail, and Ned, who has escaped from jail, hires a motorboat and also gives chase. Giovanni steers his boat through a narrow opening into an inlet, where Blye's yacht cannot follow, whereupon Blye produces a pistol and shoots Giovanni. June grasps the helm and runs the boat into the inlet with the aid of Giovanni's negro assistant and lands near a house where some river pirates live. Among them are Tony and Marietta. They quarrel over a division of their spoils, in which one of the pirates stabs Tony and escapes. As June rushes up, she, Marietta and the wounded Tony are all struck with the resemblance between the two women. Before he dies Tony tells June where to find his buried treasure for Marietta and she undertakes to do so. The other pirates pursue her. Marietta follows June to help her and as they get the treasure, the two pirates attack them. Ned rescues the two girls and Marietta starts after them, knife in hand, on vengeance bent. As they turn on her, Blye and his party interfere and save her, and learning from her of June's whereabouts, Blye arrives just in time to snatch June away from Ned and make a prisoner of him. Episode 12: "The Spirit of the Marsh" Ned, after a sharp, heroic struggle with Blye's hirelings, was borne off to one of the strongly barred cabins of the yacht. The next day he was brought, like a prisoner before a judge, into the presence of the man with the black Vandyke, who promised the unhappy young husband that if he would leave June unmolested for five days, at the end of that time he should have her back safe and sound. Ned gulped and pledged his word. Then he was set free, to go and come as he pleased. Meanwhile, June had made the acquaintance of Durban, the artist, who, with his rich wife, had taken a handsome villa in Bermuda for the winter. He made no secret of the fact that he had married this woman for her money. Also, in a cottage apart, he supported a pretty little model, Mimi, upon whom, for the time being, he had settled his changeable affections. The day before, Durban had had a rather upsetting scene with Amy, a girl of the neighborhood, whom he had engaged to pose for a picture that was not in Mimi's line. Because of this he was all the more willing to allow himself to be attracted to June; in her he could forget his recent chagrin. One morning early he chanced to come upon June as she stood drinking in the sun and air on the beach, and induced her to pose. Suddenly she found herself struggling in his close embrace. She fought herself free and fled. Realizing presently that he no longer was following her, she turned and saw that he had been caught in the quicksands. Nothing more awful than the end of this self-indulgent man ever was witnessed by the runaway bride. Episode 13: "Trapped" June, returning to the hotel with Gilbert Blye, immediately after witnessing the tragic end of Durban, the artist, is conscious that the man with the black Vandyke has become suddenly a dangerous companion. She flees from the protecting arm with which he has encircled her all too tightly, and running down to the shore, takes refuge under a net in a fishing boat. Blye loses track of her. But, from a distance, Ned Warner witnesses the incident, also the arrival of a strange fellow, long-haired and in rags, who jumps into June's boat and pushes off with her to sea. Hiring two sailors to go with him, he gets a small craft and gives pursuit. Blye also is soon scouring the bay. Meanwhile, June struggles with her boatman, who turns out to be a half-witted barbarian, and the boat is capsized. She is rescued by a girl, attired like a dryad, who takes her to an island, where Hierophant, a charlatan mystic, celebrates mild orgies. June joins the dance of his captive maidens. Some time later Hierophant attempts to put the newcomer through an initiation dance of a kind which outrages her modesty, and with the help of one of the other girls, she flees the island. She succeeds in rejoining Ned on the bay and he boards her raft. But the man with the black Vandyke also comes alongside. He fells Ned unconscious, and dragging the fainting June into his boat, heads his rapidly moving craft for shore. Episode 14: "In the Grip of Poverty" June is taken from her husband on the raft and carried away in a boat by Gilbert Blye. On the mainland, however, they are met by Gascon, the leader of a band of Apaches. On seeing the runaway bride, Gascon signals to his confederates, two men and two women, whom he instructs to follow and capture June. The thing is accomplished and June is compelled to put on the Apache dress and perfect herself in their famous dance. Meanwhile, Marie, the sweetheart of Pierre, one of the band, is driven by jealousy of the pretty newcomer to betray the Apache quarter to the commandant of the military guard. A fierce fight ensues between the Parisian thieves and the local soldiery in which the former are killed and routed. Pierre pursues Marie to the top of a cliff. He realizes that she has turned traitor. In a frenzy of rage he flings the girl over the crag into the sea. June is found, hiding among the rocks, by Gilbert Blye. He leads her safely away. Episode 15: "At Last, My Love" June leaves Bermuda with Blye and his associates. She is followed by Ned, who boards the same boat, unobserved. Once at sea, Ned tries to devise some plan for rescuing June from Blye. But in the end he realizes that he is powerless against Blye. He remembers his previous experience when he was held a prisoner on the boat as a maniac and determines to use cunning. He is certain that Blye knows he is aboard, and so hides in the hold. Blye discovers his presence on the steamer and bribes sailors to close the hatch. Ned is thus imprisoned and is unable to interfere for the remainder of the voyage. The steamer reaches New York and Blye gives instructions for the release of Ned. Then with June and the rest of the party, Blye goes ashore. As June, Blye and the others of the Blye party leave the pier and are about to enter their autos, Bill Wolf, Mrs. BIye's detective, rushes up. Blye knocks Wolf down and drives away. Wolf follows in a taxicab. He trails the entire party to a large building whose roof and some of whose sides are of glass. He then hurries to report to Mrs. Blye. When Ned comes out of the hold he is able to find no trace of June or Blye. Thinking that he may gain some information at Mrs. BIye's house he hurries there. He arrives in time to hear Bill Wolf tell Mrs. Blye of the large glass building and BIye's presence there. Mrs. Blye and Wolf start for the large building while Ned follows in another machine. On the way Ned sends a telegram to Mr. and Mrs. Moore, June's parents, explaining the situation. The Moores start at once to assist Ned in his rescue of June. Ned finds a sturdy doorkeeper at the large glass building and fights with him to get in. Detective Wolf, who arrives on the scene with Mrs. Blye, assists Ned in his struggle with the doorkeeper. The two overpower the guardian of the entrance and force their way into the hallway of the building. Ned finds a locked door at the end of the hallway barring further progress. Peering through an opening of the door Ned sees that June, Blye and others are in the room. As Ned watches, June, Blye and his associates go into another room. Ned breaks down the door, but finds that the only egress, however, is through another barred door. The Moores arrive on the scene in time to see Ned breaking down the second door. Ned, the Moores, Mrs. Blye and Bill Wolf force their way into the presence of Blye, June and the others. The Blye party is grouped about Edwards, who is seated at a small table and is handling money to the various members of the group, in turn. As Edwards hands some money to June, Ned seizes Blye. Cunningham and the other men of the party separate the two and then explain the situation to Ned. The building in which they are, Blye tells Ned, is a moving picture studio. When June left her husband in order not to be financially dependent upon him she joined the motion picture company of Blye. The many strange adventures through which she passes and which mystifies the Moores and Ned, Blye explains, were scenes in various motion picture dramas in which June was leading woman. June has now won her independence and her contract with Blye has been fulfilled. Edwards is paymaster and was paying salaries. Ned is at last convinced and makes very humble apology to June. June forgives him and introduces him formally to Blye and the other members of the company. Everybody joins in a big farewell dinner to June and Ned. The situation has been explained to Mrs. Blye and she forgives her husband for his seeming disloyalty. June and Ned are toasted at the dinner and at its end resume their, interrupted honeymoon. END
- DirectorBurton L. KingStarsOla HumphreyWilliam C. DowlanEdward SlomanA series of six episodes involving the adventures of an American actress in Old Egypt: #1: The Purple Iris; #2: The Cage of the Golden Bars; #3: In the Shadow of the Pyramids; #4: For the Honor of a Woman; #5: In the Name of the King; #6: The Crown of Death.
- DirectorHowell HanselJohn InceStarsCrane WilburMary CharlesonJack StandingEPISODE 1: In the little village of Elmhurst is a lonely house with shuttered windows, the home of a suspicious recluse known as Professor Gershom, who is considered more than half mad. No one has ever guessed the secret of the old house, that within its walls a beautiful girl has grown from childhood to womanhood without ever speaking to a human being except her strange guardian. Alene is in heart a child, but she is deeply learned in all things that a really great scientist has been able to teach her. Gershom, however, is vaguely conscious that about her there is something incomplete and imperfect. Alene herself is unaware that the restlessness which prevents her finding interest in the life she has heretofore led is due to the stirring of the primal instinct to seek a mate. Something seems calling her out into the world, and unquestioning, she answers the call, stealing from the old house while Gershom sleeps. Fate wills that Robert Dane shall be the first man Alene shall meet. Though neither is aware, a flame of love is instantly kindled. Alene, with the simplicity of perfect purity, demands that Dane take her to live in his house, and is heartbroken when he conducts her instead to her own home. Dane is himself miserable, for he thinks this wonderful little person must be demented, and that it is for this reason that she has been hidden from the world. Sadly Alene enters the old house, to find a scene of horror. Stretched upon the floor, with the blood matting his hair, is Professor Gershom and upon the edge of a curtain is a human hand, the figure itself being concealed by the drapery. In the fascination of terror Alene draws near enough to the mysterious hand to observe that it wears a peculiar ring, and then flees from the place. Alene finds Dane and induces him to return with her to the house, they being accompanied by Dr. Duncan, a kindly old village practitioner and friend of Dane. They find the old house empty; the body of Gershom has disappeared, and there is no one behind the curtain. Dr. Duncan takes Alene to his home, though she declares that she would prefer to go with Dane, and she is tenderly cared for by the doctors old wife. Dr. Duncan and his wife also think the poor child demented, but hope time and kindness may cure the ill. As to her identity they have no clue and can only surmise her relationship to Gershom. Alone in his study Dane is dreaming of Alene. EPISODE 2: Caleb Jerome is a private banker of the old school, most highly esteemed in the business world and considered a man of wealth. In striking contrast to the simple life of his father, Calebs only son, Gilbert, is a libertine. Nevertheless Gilbert is his fathers idol, and for his sake the old man has not hesitated at a secret crime, though the son treats him with indifference. Caleb is paying a terrible price for the doubtful success which his greatest crime offered. Wherever he may be, an incredible horror dogs his steps. When his eyes rest upon a face, whether it be that of a stranger or a familiar friend or servant, that face suddenly becomes that of a dead man, Prof. Gershom, Realizing that his end is near, Caleb sends for his son, and tells him what he has done and the reasons for the act; that the fortune supposed to be his was originally for Alene, and that in an attempt to destroy the evidence whereby this girl, should she live to become of age, will recover her fortune and make Gilbert Jerome a beggar. Caleb murderously struck down old Gershom, the girls protector, and threw his body into the river. The documents he sought, Caleb had been unable to find. Gilbert assures him that either the documents will be found and destroyed, or that Alene shall not live to become of age. Soon after, the horror of the face of fear becomes too great to be endured, and Caleb Jerome dies. Meantime, Alene has been tenderly cared for by Dr. Duncan and his wife, Martha, and Duncan has awakened to the fact that Alene is not mad, but as sane as any other perfectly normal person. With the frankness of perfect purity, the girl shows her instinctive desire for the love of a man and her choice of Robert Dane. Danes love for Alene now completely fills his heart with soul-stirring passion, but he sternly represses his emotions, thinking that it would be unfair to Alene to marry her before a greater knowledge of the world enables her to choose a husband on the basis of practical affairs, rather than to act merely on emotional impulse. Rather sadly he tells himself that as she has only a childs heart still, it means nothing that she turns to him now. EPISODE 3: But a short time has elapsed since Alene first came from the old house in which she grew to womanhood, but already her keen mind is sensing the true basis of certain conventionalities, and when Martha, Dr. Duncans wife, suggests that she exchange her Grecian robe for more modern garments, the girl agrees after asking, Will Robert Dane like me better? Already there is creeping into Alenes manner toward Dane a trace of shyness, but he does not realize that this shyness is a mantle which her awakening soul is drawing about itself; he still regards her as a child and hides his love. Dane is a frequent visitor at the Duncan home, and on one occasion Alene follows when the doctor takes Dane to inspect the one thing of interest in the village. This is a large silver cup which for many years has hung beside a mineral spring. Its origin is a mystery, and many traditions have been woven about it, so that no one in the village would dream of removing it. It is curiously engraved with a promise of health to whoever drinks from it here, and a warning that elsewhere it will give death. The most extraordinary feature is, however, that the water of the spring, absolutely undrinkable from any other vessel, has, when taken from this cup, astonishing medicinal value. Alene solves the mystery of the cup by telling them that Prof. Gershom placed it beside the spring when she was a child, though they can form no idea of his motives, or determine why the cup exerts so strange an influence on the water of the spring. Shortly after, Alene chances to meet Abner Gray, a simple-hearted young villager who immediately falls in love with her. Alene observes on Abners hand the ring which she saw upon the hand grasping the curtain in the House of Secrets, and concludes that Abner killed old Gershom, not being aware that the ring has just been found by Abner. This belief causes her to treat Abner with kindness; she is grateful that he should have done something which has resulted in a happier life for her. Her mind is not yet prepared to grasp the idea that to kill Gershom was a crime. She treats Abner with frank fondness, and Dr. Duncan is delighted, thinking that marriage to Abner would be a simple solution of the rather difficult problem of her future. Dane misunderstands Alenes attitude toward Abner and with self-deprecation deems her apparent turning to Abner natural and proper and as confirmation of his former idea that the preference she showed him in the first place was only a childish fancy. At this time Gilbert Jerome arrives in the village, coldly determined that if the documents which will dispossess him of his stolen fortune cannot be found and destroyed, Alene shall die. EPISODE 4: Immediately after his arrival in the village, Gilbert Jerome makes the acquaintance of Dr. Duncan and of Alene, and falling passionately in love with the girl, determines to marry her, thus saving the fortune and at the same time coming into possession of what he regards as a rare and unique specimen of feminine attractiveness. It does not occur to his predatory mind to attempt a courtship; he intends to force her into a marriage by whatever means may be available. He decides to eliminate Abner Gray, his only rival. It is Alene herself who affords the means. Asked by Gilbert why she likes Abner so well, the girl tells him quite simply that it is because Abner killed old Gershom. This she knows because of the ring which Abner wears. Gilbert of course knows, through his fathers confession, that Abner is innocent, but seizes this chance to dispose of him once and for all. He informs the authorities of Alenes statement, and Abner is arrested, charged with murder. Dr. Duncan and his wife, through an act of kindness, have exposed themselves to smallpox, and have been quarantined along with the person stricken with the disease. Alene instinctively seeks Robert Dane for protection and advice, only to be informed that he has gone away without stating his destination. As a matter of fact, Dane has gone to the nearby city in response to a message that the failure of a trust company has wiped out his small fortune and that his presence is necessary if anything at all is to be saved from the wreck. Alene is thus left entirely friendless, all the other villagers regarding her with suspicion and disapproval, and Gilbert thinks she must fall an easy victim to his desires although his plans have been somewhat interfered with by the arrival in the village of Clara, a woman who is madly in love with him, and who presents herself as his wife. At Gilberts order, she leaves the village proper, but secretly finds lodging at a farmhouse nearby. Alene begins to comprehend the peril in which Abner stands. In horror she tells herself that they will hang him, because she told of the ring and that it will be she who will send him to his death. EPISODE 5: Alene is almost brokenhearted at the apparent indifference of Robert Dane, and is utterly miserable at the thought that Abner Gray will be put to death because she told of the ring. In desperation she appeals to a lawyer for advice. He tells her that it is on her testimony alone that the prosecution will attempt to convict Abner of the murder of Gershom, and that there is no way by which a person can evade giving testimony, the only exception to this being that under the laws of this State a wife is not permitted to testify in a trial of her husband. Alene then sees how she may save Abner, if they are married before he can be brought to trial she cannot be compelled to testify and he cannot be convicted. Beyond this primary fact, she does not consider the effect of the marriage as pertaining to herself, to her it appears only as a formality. She acts with decision, and before the furious prosecuting attorney can interfere, she is Abner Grays wife. Abner is still held in jail, and Alene returns to the Duncan house. Here she finds a note signed, Robert Dane directing her to come at once to a certain lonely old mill, and she immediately sets out. This note is a forgery, having been sent by Clara. Gilbert Jeromes former flame, who, mad with jealousy, has determined to take Alenes life. Meanwhile, Dane has learned through the press of the arrest of Abner and of the fact that Dr. Duncan and his wife have been subjected to quarantine, and is hurrying back to the village, apprehensive of what may happen to Alene while alone. Alene arrives at the abandoned mill, and is lured into the building by Clara, who tells her that Dane is waiting. Clara opens a door, gives Alene a violent shove into the room, and laughs in wild triumph. The rotten floor boards give way and Alene plunges into a deep pool of slimy water. EPISODE 6: Having learned through the press of the murder charge against Abner Gray and of the quarantining of Dr. Duncan and his wife, Robert Dane hurries back to Elmhurst and directly to the Duncan home. He finds the forged note, and realizes that some danger threatens Alene. He sets out for the old mill, and when passing the county jail encounters Abner, who has been released, the prosecuting attorney realizing that, without Alenes testimony, he cannot even indict Abner. Dane shows the note and tells of his fears, and the two men hurry to the abandoned mill, arriving in time to hear Alenes despairing cries as she sinks in the stagnant water of the hidden pool. Dane and Abner rush into the building, and are trapped by Clara as Alene had been. Clara then hurries away, seeking Gilbert Jerome. Gilbert is at the village hotel, having just returned from the performance of a characteristic deed. He coolly ignores the angry protests of certain villagers and informs then that the silver cup which he has taken is as much his as anyone elses. Clara tells Gilbert that she has killed Alene, but that no one will suspect it was not an accident that caused the girls death, and calms his rage by reminding him that his fortune is made safe by her act. Gilberts satisfied greed salves his disappointed passion, and, with Clara, he takes the train for the city. Meanwhile, the old mill has been the scene of an heroic sacrifice. Abner Gray, given more than human strength by his great love for Alene, his wife only in name, has saved her from apparently certain death, and at the same time restored Robert Dane to life, while he, despite efforts of Dane, perishes. Dane conducts Alene to the Duncan home, and learns that Clara and Gilbert Jerome have left the village. Alene is sorely grieved at the death of Abner, but it is a grief such as she would have felt for a well-loved brother, not a lover, and it is with a longing that is growing day by day that she wistfully whispers to herself, Surely Robert Dane will take me now? But Dane has blinded his own hungry heart, and does not understand. EPISODE 7: Supposing Alene, Dane and Abner Gray to have died in the trap set by Clara, Gilbert Jerome and the woman leave the village. Their train is wrecked and Clara is killed outright. Gilbert is also reported killed, though he is in fact uninjured and proceeds to his home, taking the silver cup with him. Danes financial ruin is complete, and it is necessary that he find employment. Thinking that no further danger menaces Alene, he enlists the services of a kindly old lady who promises to look after the girl, and departs for the city. Believing that Alenes fancy for him has already died, Dane thinks it will be best for her as well as for himself to allow her to forget him, and does not even inform her of his address. It is not long after Danes departure that Alene is told that Doctor Duncan and his wife are dead, and the Duncan home is seized by the sheriff on behalf of Duncans creditors. The timid old lady engaged by Dane is incapable of rising to the situation, and leaves Alene to the disposition of the officer, who brutally tells her that she is to go to the poor-farm. Surely Robert Dane will take me now, she soliliquises, and with simple faith steals away to seek him. She does not even vaguely comprehend the magnitude of this undertaking. She knows only that Dane has gone to the city, and has been told that the highway from the village leads there. In the city Dane is vainly striving to put from his heart the love which he thinks can only bring him sorrow, and Gilbert Jerome is savagely cursing the fate which, as he thinks, has made him secure in the possession of his stolen fortune but robbed him of the girl of his desire. When darkness falls Alene is far along her lonely road, weary, penniless and utterly ignorant of the ways or dangers of the world. EPISODE 8: Robert Dane has not met with success in the city, failing to secure employment and receiving an offer of but a thousand dollars for a chemical formula which he knows to be worth a fortune. Moreover, he is rendered miserable by what he persists in regarding as his futile love for Alene. He becomes obsessed with the idea that the girl is again in danger, and obeys an impulse to return to the village. He has, in fact, heard, with the strange power of one soul attuned with another, the wistful whisper of the girl, alone in the world, I am so weary and afraid. Cant you hear me, Robert Dane! When he reaches the village he learns that Alene has disappeared, leaving no trace. Crushed with fear and grief, he searches in vain for some clue. Meanwhile, Alene has been carried to the city by a kindly farmer bound for the market. She is seen by Gilbert Jerome, who forgets the danger to his fortune in the revival of his passionate hopes and his delight in finding that Alene still lives. Gilberts plans are temporarily balked, however, by the interference of Daisy, a show girl, who knows through sad experience the fate that threatens Alene, and who takes her under her protection. In order that she may keep watch over her protégé, Daisy secures for Alene a place in the chorus of the show with which she is engaged, devoting her spare time to a search for Dane. Gilbert succeeds in having Daisy discharged and so separating her from Alene, it being necessary, inasmuch as Daisy is entirely without funds, that Alene retain her position. Realizing that the only practical hope of locating Dane is to trace him from a logical starting point, Daisy goes to Elmhurst. Gilbert has by this time completed his plans, and lures Alene to his house. Totally unconscious of the trap into which she has been led, Alene joyously awaits the promised coming of Dane and readily agrees to have supper while so waiting. She observes on the sideboard the silver cup taken by Gilbert from the mineral spring, and, taking it up, reproaches him for having removed it from the place where it had so long remained undisturbed. Taking the cup from her, Gilbert fills it with wine, and with the statement that always he takes whatever he may want, drinks. An instant later he reels and falls, and the butler, rushing to his assistance, draws back in dazed fright, whispering, He is dead! EPISODE 9: Upon reaching the village of Elmhurst, Daisy, the show-girl and self-appointed guardian of Alene, inquires of the first man she sees where she can obtain information concerning Robert Dane. It is to Dane himself that the inquiry has been addressed, he having been forced to abandon as hopeless his efforts to trace Alene and being on the point of returning to the city. With the skill of long experience, Daisy readily reads Danes character, and, satisfied, informs him that Alene is safe and offers to conduct him to her. Reaching the city, Daisy and Dane proceed to Daisys room and then to the theater in search of Alene. At the latter place they learn from the doorkeeper, who has overheard the address given to the driver of the taxi in which Alene was taken away, that the girl has gone to Gilbert Jeromes house. In an agony of apprehension they hurry to the house, arriving at about the same instant that Gilbert drains the silver cup. They are, of course unaware of what is taking place, and enlist the aid of an officer, on whom Daisys frantically earnest appeals make an impression. The officer goes to the side of the house, where he can look into the dining room, while Dane and Daisy force their way past the servant who opens the front door. The officer looks in the window just as the horrified butler announces that Gilbert Jerome is dead. Dane and Daisy reach the dining room just as the officer springs in at the window and assumes charge of the situation. Alene feels no grief at Gilberts death, and pretends no regret, but ignoring the incident, is entirely happy to again meet Dane. A telephoned report to the police station bring detectives and a doctor and the latter at once declares Gilbert dead, and further, that he obviously died from some unusual poison. The brief investigation conducted on the spot seems to point conclusively to the guilt of Alene, and her unconventional manner and words count heavily against her. At the police station, she is held on a charge of murder, Dane, Daisy, the butler and Gilberts footman being detained as witnesses for the inquest. Dane, realizing how strong is the circumstantial evidence against Alene, is hearthroken, but the girl herself is only bewildered that she should be shut in a prison cell. EPISODE 10: The death of Gilbert Jerome attracts great attention, and the grand jury acts promptly, indicting Alene for murder. her trial is set for an early date. Robert Dane is almost in despair, for though sure that Alene is innocent, he realizes that a terrible array of circumstantial evidence will be brought against her. The show girl, Daisy, has not faltered in her friendship for Alene. A great change has taken place in Daisys character since her meeting with Alene, and, sickened by the contrast between her own sad past and Alenes innate purity, she has bravely determined that she will rebuild her wrecked life and that henceforth there shall be in it nothing of sorrow or shame. Also, for the first time, she knows the meaning of real love. Though she gives no sign, Dane has completely filled her hungry heart. In order to obtain money with which to engage a noted lawyer to defend Alene, Dane sells for a thousand dollars his chemical formula, which is really worth a fortune. Soon after, Alenes trial takes place. As Dane feared, the State is able to forge a strong chain of circumstantial evidence, in which even Danes testimony is a link. It is proved that the poison which killed Gilbert Jerome was contained in the silver cup, and that this cup was handed him by Alene. Her honest indifference to Gilberts fate is regarded as a demonstration of utter callousness, and her weary bewilderment is construed as the blasé indifference of the hardened criminal, the veil of mystery shrouding her life to within the past few months being pointed to with sinister suggestion. The lawyer engaged by Dane stakes everything on the personal appeal which Alene may make to the jury, but when she is called upon to tell her own story, she says simply, Everything was just as has been said, but I do not know what killed Gilbert Jerome. Very shortly the jury returns its verdict: guilty, and in an agony of horror, Dane hears the girl whom he now realizes is more precious to him than life and all things else that life may hold, condemned to be hanged by the neck until she is dead. EPISODE 11: The date set for the execution of Alene for the murder of Gilbert Jerome is only one day off, and there appears no hope of saving her, the governor having refused to intervene. With a desperate effort, Robert Dane shakes off the stupor of despair which has numbed his brain and strains every faculty in an effort to find the key to the mystery. He is absolutely sure of Alenes complete innocence and that she is the victim of strange circumstances. Suddenly a light seems to break through the darkness, but so strange and startling is its suggestion that he is almost forced to regard it as an insane fancy rather than a logical deduction. Yet, to every test of reasoning, the idea persists, and he realizes that, assuming Alenes innocence, it must be the truth, and that in the silver cup is the secret of Gilberts death. The mysterious words upon the cup assume meaning as he now recalls them: Drink without a fear / Life I promise here / But death to whoso dare / Touch his lips elsewhere. Dane appeals to the court officials for permission to experiment with the cup, but is told that it is a part of the records and cannot be permitted in his possession. He realizes that to urge his theory without positive proof would be utterly futile, but does not for an instant abandon his plan to save the girl he loves from the gallows. He makes a quick trip to Elmhurst, returning with a flask of water from the mineral spring, and when the courthouse is untenanted except for a night watchman, undertakes to steal the silver cup, from the court records. He succeeds in gaining possession of the cup, but is fired upon by the watchman, who also sends in a police call. Dane, with the cup, reaches his room, though he is badly wounded. The court officials recall Danes effort to borrow the cup, and the description given by the watchman identifies Dane as the thief. Detectives at once set out for his lodging house. Meanwhile, ignoring the wound through which his lifeblood is being drained away, Dane works with desperate swiftness to prove by chemical analysis and coordination that his startling theory is fact. There is little time to lose; it is now a matter of hours only before the law will demand of Alene her life. EPISODE 12: Alenes apparently inevitable fate is a crushing horror to Daisy. Besides this, Daisy realizes that Robert Danes whole life is centered upon Alene and will be utterly blasted if she suffers the terrible penalty which the law has imposed. Unable to endure the suspense alone, Daisy goes to Danes lodging house late in the night preceding the day set for Alenes execution, and finds him staggering with weakness from the wound inflicted by the night watchman, but triumphant at having solved the mystery of Gilbert Jeromes death. A few moments after detectives arrive to arrest Dane for the theft of the silver cup. Vainly Dane tells them of his discovery, but they regard his story as the wild fancy of a disordered mind, and refuse to permit him to appeal to the Governor. Dane makes a frantic effort to escape, but is overpowered. While the officers struggle with Dane, Daisy turns off the light, and flees down the fire escape, taking the silver cup and flask of water from the mineral spring. She is pursued, but eludes the detective by clambering aboard a passing freight train. Daisy enlists the sympathy of a brakeman, and is permitted to make the trip to the State capital on the top of a box car. Arriving in the capital at dawn, Daisy locates the residence of the Governor, but realizing that ordinary means would not gain her an interview at this hour, she breaks into the house, purposely making noise enough to arouse the inmates. The Governor listens to her story with incredulity, directs that she be turned over to the police, and Daisy realizes there is but one course remaining. In half an hour Alene will be executed, and Daisy believes that Dane will not live afterward. She carefully explains Danes contention that the poison which killed Gilbert Jerome is contained in the metal of the cup; that this unknown poison is neutralized and even made a beneficial tonic when acted upon by the minerals contained in the water of the spring beside which the cup hung, but is deadly when these neutralizing minerals are not present. She fills the cup from the flask of mineral water and drinks, without harm, but a cupful of water from the Governors own carafe proves Danes theory true, and Daisy has given her life that those she loved might live. As Alene is led from the cell to the scaffold, word comes that the Governor has granted a reprieve. EPISODE 13: Seriously wounded, Robert Dane lays in the hospital, a screen separating his cot from the next. On this cot lies Professor Gershom, who disappeared on the day Alene left the House of Secrets, and who was supposed to have been murdered; even Caleb Jerome, the man who struck him down, having been so convinced of his victims death that his conscience had brought about his own end. Gershom had been rescued from the river, into which his supposedly lifeless body was thrown by Caleb Jerome, and for long weeks has lain in a comatose state in the hospital. His consciousness now returning, he becomes aware that on the other side of the screen someone is speaking. It is a nurse reading aloud to Dane the newspaper announcement that Alene has been pardoned and is to be released. From the article, Gershom gets an idea of the events that have transpired since his disappearance, and finding strength in his iron will, rises and demands his discharge from the hospital. While waiting in the office, Gershom learns the date, and also discovers the famous silver cup, which has been sent to a specialist in poisons, for experimental purposes. Possessing himself of the cup, Gershom escapes undetected, and reaches the jail just as Alene is made free. The girl finds no happiness in her escape from death. She is unaware of the part played by Dane in her deliverance, and is brokenhearted at the thought that in her hour of peril he deserted her. She shows no surprise at the reappearance of Gershom, and allows him to conduct her to the office of a distinguished old lawyer, Madison, whose name Gershom is able to recall. Gershom tells the lawyer of the case he wishes to put into his hands; that the fortune supposed to belong to Caleb Jerome was really held in secret trust, to be given Alene, the rightful owner, should she be living on this, the day she is of age. With a penknife he cuts out the bottom of the silver cup, disclosing the fact that this bottom is double, and from the space between the bottom takes several documents and a wonderful jewel, all of which he places in the lawyers hands. As he reads, Madisons expression changes from incredulity to amazed conviction. Gravely Gershom rises, bows to the weary and indifferent girl, who seems to take no interest in the strange revelations concerning herself, and replies: This is her Royal Highness the Princess Alene, rightful heiress to her fathers crown and the throne of Urania. EPISODE 14: To Madison and Alene, Professor Gershom tells the story of Alene. The King of Urania honored me with his friendship, and I was not unknown as a scientist, eighteen years ago. He tells them of the splendor of the court of the Balkan kingdom, of the high pride and noble courage of the king, and of his great love for the baby princess Alene, his only child; of how, realizing that the throne would soon fall, and wishing to save his child from the fate that he, the king, could not, in pride, evade, the monarch had secretly transferred to America his private fortune, to be held in trust until claimed by Alene on the day she became of age. How, soon after, came the terror of the revolution, when the king, sword in hand, died at the foot of his throne, and Gershom, in fulfillment of his trust, and despite a terrible blow upon the head from the weapon of a revolutionist, escaped with the baby princess, and eventually reached America, demented, but with one idea persisting and controlling his life; to protect the child. Gershom at once discovered that the secret trustee, Caleb Jerome, planned to steal the fortune, and, if necessary, murder the child, and fled in a panic of fear, hiding in the village of Elmhurst, where he bought a lonely house and reared the child, the secret of her existence being unguessed by the villagers. The documents proving her identity he placed in the double bottom of a cup he made from a silver alloy into which he introduced a deadly poison only neutralized by the mineral water of a local spring, beside which he place the cup. At last, Caleb Jerome found Gershoms hiding place, and in an effort to discover and destroy the documents, resorted to an attempt at murder. His blow, however, eventually restored to Gershom the sanity wrecked by the revolutionists club, and, in time, Gershom saw all things clearly, so that now he placed the matter in the hands of a lawyer. Madison assures Gershom and Alene that, with the documents the recovery of the fortune is a simple matter, and takes Alene to his home, where she is kindly received by the lawyers wife. Gershom, once more a shrewd and ambitious man, familiar with the political intrigues of Europe, hurries away on business, the nature of which he does not disclose. He has conceived a bold idea, suggested by the news of the day; that the Republic of Urania has declared it will remain neutral in the great war, rejecting the overtures of the Hervo-Alesian Empire to become an ally, and that the old Royalist party is reviving and urging that Urania form an alliance with the Empire and enter the war. EPISODE 15: So soon as Robert Dane has regained sufficient strength to leave the hospital, he is brought to trial for stealing the cup from the court records, and, upon his admission, is sentenced to pay a fine of $1,000 or serve six months in the penitentiary, the court pointing out that, though the circumstances were unusual, the law cannot permit the interference by an individual with established forms. Being unable to pay the fine, Dane is transferred to a cell pending his removal to the penitentiary. Meanwhile Alene has learned of the part played by Dane in her rescue from the gallows, and the thought that she will soon be wealthy and able to save him from the consequences of his acts fills her with happiness. She soon learns, however, that she is not to be wealthy, the lawyer Madison sadly informing her that her fortune has been thrown away on wildcat securities not worth the claiming. Alene possesses nothing of value except the jewel which has been preserved with the documents in the sup, and this she gives to Madison, asking that he sell it and buy Danes freedom. Gershom has, through the local Consul, gotten in communication with the Hervo-Alesian Ambassador, and this official has communicated with his government and received instructions. Accompanied by Gershom, he seeks Alene, and reaches the Madison home at about the same time that Dane, released through Madisons efforts, arrives. The Ambassador desires a private audience, but Alene tells him to speak before her friends, of not at all. He tells her that he bears a message from the Emperor; that if Alene will agree to wed a prince of Hervo-Alesia, and to become an ally of the Empire, the Emperors armies will restore the monarchy and place Alene upon her fathers throne as Queen of Urania; that her answer must be given now, and once for all. Dane listens with breaking heart. For a time Alene is silent, looking into the face of Robert Dane, and then she asks softly, Do you love me? Again Gershom interposes with a warning cry, She is a queen. It is her destiny! And Dane says, while his soul dies, I do not love you. For long the girl looks into Danes eyes, then turns to the waiting Ambassador and gives her answer: Your Emperors aid is not needed, for I have already come into my kingdom. Their protests silenced by a gesture, all save Dane file slowly from the room. When they are alone, Alene turns shyly to the man for whose love she has sacrificed a throne. He is dazed, but into this face comes a great light as she whispers, Now, now I am only a girl, Robert Dane, and he draws her close against his heart.
- DirectorAlberto MarroStarsFrancisco AguilóManuel ArbóJuan ArgelaguésBased in Barcelona y sus misterios. Diego Rocafort, a poor honest man of principles in love with Clara is kidnapped and sold as a slave by his rival but escapes, obtains a big fortune and returns to Barcelona looking for her beloved Clara.
- DirectorEdward LeSaintStarsDoc CraneWilliam GarwoodStella RazetoA series of five related episodes, each complete in itself: #1: Lord John in New York (1915) (4 reels); #2: The Grey Sisterhood (1916) (3 reels); #3: Three Fingered Jenny (1916) (3 reels); #4: The Eye of Horus (1916); #5: The League of the Future (1916).