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- Pa Potter invests four thousand dollars in worthless oil stock. Or is it worthless?
- Wealthy New York girl, Susan Van Dusen, in search of thrills and laughter, leaves home and finds work with a private detective agency. She meets Tod Waterbury, who, under another name, is working as a cab driver (in search of story material for a novel), and the two fall in love. Tod offers the detective agency a reward to find himself and arranges for Susan to be assigned to the case; since they are constantly together, Susan hasn't a chance in the world of finding him. Susan is assigned to another case and follows a gang of crooks to a dark and deserted house. After a series of harrowing adventures in the house, she comes to realize that the whole affair has been fabricated by Tod and her family to cure her of her lust for adventure. Susan marries Tod, greatly to her own and her father's delight.
- Ellis, an English barrister, goes to a hotel, in answer to a note of appeal, to rescue a woman he had formerly loved from the influence of her husband, a crook, who mistreats her. He takes her safely away, but shoots and wounds Gray, her husband. They flee, followed by threats of vengeance from Gray. Parr, an adventurer, occupying the room adjoining, has, unseen, witnessed the shooting affray. Ellis flees with Gray's wife for America. On the first day out she dies in childbirth and pleads with him to adopt her babe. Ellis agrees. Parr, who happens to be on the same ship, knows of the death of the mother and the adoption of the child. Ellis is ignorant of Parr's identity. Years later Ellis, happy with his ward, Betty, is in a secluded old mansion in America. He has never learned for certain whether or not Gray died and he is continually haunted by the thought that Gray might return. Parr, now an unscrupulous land dealer, visits Ellis's estate in an effort to purchase acreage which he knows to be rich in ore. He is astounded to recognize in Ellis the man whom he had seen shoot Gray 18 years before. Ellis flatly refuses to sell. Parr, angered, leaves, ready to employ a scheme to make Ellis leave the estate or sell it. Soon after, Betty is plunged into a state of constant fear by the growing terror of her old guardian. Betty sees and hears of a mysterious, ghostlike figure at nights and becomes convinced that her guardian is the victim of a frightful apparition, or fiend in human flesh. Nervous to the point of hysterics, she writes her guardian's young attorney, Briggs, to come to the mansion at Lone Willows. Briggs arrives, hears the strange story of the secret of the mansion, and resolves to stay until he has exposed the mysterious agent. He is not only unsuccessful, but in time becomes a haunted wreck, in as pitiable a plight as Ellis. Both men barricade the doors of the mansion. Betty, unable to gain access into the locked rooms, hurries to the city, notifies the police and goes to the home of her school chum, Claire Parr, to spend the night. During the night she is astounded to see Claire's father leave the house with a crook, Hart, both with masks. Hurriedly she seeks aid from the police and follows the men. The police arrive at Lone Willows to find the mansion a mass of flames. Inside the house a desperate battle is in progress between Ellis and Briggs and Parr and Hart. The two haunted men, having discovered Hart and Parr entering the mansion through a secret passage, believe they at last have the opportunity to kill their mysterious enemies. The police force their way into the house. Ellis and Briggs are rescued but the two crooks perish in the fire. Later Ellis learns the truth, that Parr had employed Hart, a crook, to "haunt" the mansion so that Ellis would believe Gray was carrying out his threat to kill him and reveal himself as Betty's real father. In this way he hoped to force Ellis to vacate the estate. In reality Gray died after being shot by Ellis years before. The entire affair is kept secret from Betty, and Ellis, now free for the first time from his hallucination, prepares to celebrate the wedding of Briggs and Betty.
- Born on Friday the thirteenth with thirteen letters in his name, Reginald Jones has been plagued with bad luck his entire life. Attempting to escape his jinx, Reginald attends a chauffeur's ball, where, after he helps a girl whose companion is berating her, the girl hits Reginald for interfering. After Reginald loses at matching coins, is sold out in the stock market, and is fleeced of his money in a badger game, he loses his inheritance of $999,998.60 when he gets arrested for fighting, and misses his aunt's funeral. Reginald then boards a schooner and meets millionaire Professor Lattimore and his daughter Helen, supposedly there to look for buried treasure. After falling in love with Helen, Reginald discovers the ship captain's plot to hold Lattimore for ransom. Reginald fights off all the crew members and forces the wireless operator to signal a U. S. Destroyer, which arrives and saves them. Reginald and Helen marry.
- Boston Blackie Dawson gets some jewels that belonged to the imperial family of Russia. A gang of terrorists is after the jewels.
- The actors arrive in a motor car, and are welcomed to the hotel by the boniface and his assistants. The Americans admire the surroundings, and are agreeably surprised at what they see, and the cordial welcome extended to them. All the well-known "Imp" stars appear in traveling costume, which is their first formal introduction in proper personae, an innovation which will be welcomed by their many admirers. In the next scene they sally forth to engage in the work of producing a picture. The producer heads the force, with the camera men in evidence, a jolly party of folks who depict "Imp" pictures in pantomime. Then comes the story, a beautiful Cuban romance. Pablo, of humble origin, loves Rosita, a beautiful maiden, and is apparently prospering in his love affair, when a stranger appears on the scene, Wallace Crawford, an American tourist, who evidently finds time hanging heavily on his hands. Crawford rides up to the home of Rosita and asks for a drink. He is quick to note the lovely face and graceful curves of the Cuban girl, and resolves to meet her again. He rides away and Rosita, forgetting Pablo, looks with altogether too much concern after the visitor. Pablo call with his guitar and, as is his wont, played to the girl, who, seated beside him, allowed her thoughts to wander from the scene and dwell on the tourist. Lulled to sleep by the soft tones of the instrument Rosita dreams, and her dream is depicted on the screen. In her dreams she meets Crawford, who is an adept in the art of charming unsophisticated women. He attempts to caress her, but is repulsed. Knowing the longing of women for finery, he produces rare jewels and adorns the girl with a rich necklace, which she admires. She is won, and is in his arms. The pair move away, Crawford leading his horse. They are detected in their clandestine love-making by Pablo, who summons her parents. Rosita, in her innocence, thinks Crawford means honorably by her, and she directs his steps to the church and asks the priest to unite them in marriage. Crawford had not reckoned on this phase of his, to him, harmless love affair, and he declines. He is attacked by Pablo, and only the intervention of the Holy Father saves the life of the faithless American. During the struggle Rosita awakens to find it all a dream. She is contrite, and the drama closes with the venerable Father uniting Rosita and Pablo in marriage. The actors are then seen returning to the hostelry, where they reappear clad in their street habiliments, only to leave in a motorcar; their work of producing the picture being finished. The film closes with a rare tropical scene peculiar to Cuba.
- Professional thief Joe Grim is killing time in New York City's Central Park before he robs the Wall Street subtreasury. He spots pretty young Laura White on a runaway horse. He manages to rescue her. Falling for her, he tries to steal a photo of her but is discovered and held at gunpoint by Laura's friend Countess Briand--who, unbeknownst to Laura, is actually the head of a German spy ring, among whose members if Laura's fiance Karl Richter. The countess convinces Joe to steal plane for a new airplane by telling Joe that they're papers that are being used to blackmail Laura. But things don't go exactly as planned.
- A spoiled rich girl is brought down to earth by the man who loves her.
- Young South Seas native boy is sent to the U.S. for his education, returns to his island after his father dies to try to stop a revolution.
- Mabel plays Arabella Flynn, a shop girl who mistakenly thinks she is an heiress. She gets in a jam on a spending spree only to discover that she actually is an heiress and can marry the heir of a corset manufacturer.
- Joan of Plattsburg is a 1918 American comedy drama film by William Humphrey and George Loane Tucker.Its survival status is classified as unknown right now.it is be lived that the film is lost.
- Hester Prynne has left Holland in advance of her husband, Roger, to join the colonists in Salem, Maxx. Roger follows her to the new world but upon landing in New England is captured by Indians and Hester waits for him in vain. There has never been much love in their marriage, Roger being an old man and she a comely young woman. Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, the handsome Young minister of the Salem community, is revered and beloved by his parishioners. He meets Hester clandestinely and an unlawful love is the result. When Hester is discovered with a baby, a mother but not a wife, she is arrested, tried and condemned to stand upon the public pillory with her child and for the remainder of her life to wear conspicuously on her breast the letter "A." As she stands on the raised platform, the governor of the colony commands her to divulge the name of the father of the child. She refuses. The Rev. Master Dimmesdale is asked to persuade her to reveal her secret. He addresses her, and tells her if she thinks it for the best, to do so. She again refuses. Roger, her husband, has been released by the red men and he appears in Salem on the day of her public disgrace and recognizes her. He signals for her to be silent as the recognition is mutual. A silence for a silence is agreed upon. He takes the name of Roger Chillingworth and, being a physician, is called to prescribe for the suffering minister, knowing him to be the father of Hester's child. The child, Pearl, grows into a beautiful girl and the governor decides that Hester is not the proper person to rear her. Hester in her grief, appeals to the minister and he in turn prevails on the governor to allow her the custody of the child. As time passes the minister is growing weaker and weaker in bodily strength and the guilty secret gives him no peace of mind. Meeting Hester and Little Pearl by accident, he tells the woman of his terrible punishment. She, in love and pity, tears the letter from her breast and proposes that they leave the country together to begin life anew. Little Pearl finds the letter and restores it to Hester and they realize they cannot escape the consequences of their sinning. On a holiday the minister preaches a powerful sermon in the church on the sins of the flesh and the penalty for evil doing. As he appears in the market place, he is cheered by the members of his congregation. He is overcome by emotion as the awful truth is brought home to him that he is a hypocrite. Seeing Hester and Little Pearl standing near, he pulls himself together by a mighty effort and resolves to confess his sins publicly. Taking them by the hands, he slowly and deliberately mounts the pillory, with Hester amazed, and then, to the astonishment of his flock and the loungers standing near, proclaims Pearl as his child and arraigns himself as a sinful teacher. The members of the church are appalled and dumb with astonishment. They cannot comprehend it. Hester smiles through her tears. She will no longer bear the burden of shame alone. The moment has arrived when she is partially vindicated by the self-sacrifice of the sharer of her degradation. The final effort, coupled with years of intense suffering, proves too great a tax on the strength of the minister and he falls dead at the foot of the pillory. Hester supports his head, with tears coursing down her cheeks. The vindication has come, but with it has gone the man she has loved in secret while being subjected to the jeers of her fellows.
- A young man gives life to a statue with disastrous results.
- A writer bets a friend that he can write a 10,000-word novel in 24 hours. The friends takes the bet, and gives him the keys to his Baldpate Inn, which has been closed for the winter, so he can write in complete seclusion. Things start heating up, though, when a succession of people who also have keys to the inn begin showing up.
- A blowhard who poses as a railroad executive but is really just a $30-a-week clerk catches a young bride, then drives her family's finances to the brink of ruin.
- Dancer Anna Janssen, common-law wife of Alastair De Vries, shoots him in a cafe for dallying with a chorus girl. The story opens with Anna's trial 5 years later, and detective Thomas McCarthy narrates his version of the case. He is sent to Tahiti where he finds and arrests her; when their ship sinks at sea, only the detective and his prisoner are saved, being cast up on a deserted island. After 2 years together, they realize the strong attachment that has developed, and Anna is regenerated by her free, natural existence. As hope of rescue dims, they take marriage vows, but when a ship is sighted, she insists, against his wishes, that she return to face trial. Anna is sentenced by the judge to be released in the custody of her husband for her natural life.
- At the beginning of hostilities, Tom Winston, despite the pleadings of his sister Ellen, an ardent Confederate, goes North and acquires a commission in the Federal Army. Frank Carey has entered the Confederate service, though his sister Ethel, furiously denounces him as a traitor, and asserts her intention of herself serving the Union. Both girls become identified with the secret service department of the South and North, respectively. Tom is with Grant, Frank with Johnston, and the armies' movements bring them into the neighborhood of their homes. Tom has with him Don, a dog that had been used in the old days to carry messages between his master and Ethel. Union headquarters are established in the Winston home, affording Ellen an opportunity to acquire many valuable secrets which she communicates to Frank, and it is the belief that some officer is proving a traitor. Tom watches his sister closely, and one night observes that as she sits merrily chatting with the Union officers, she is using her fan in such a manner as to make the dots and dashes of the Morse code to Frank, who is concealed in the shrubbery, making notes of the information. Tom discovers Frank, overpowers him, and succeeds in taking from him the memoranda, but allows him to escape. Tom places the memoranda in his pocket. The Battle of Shiloh has begun and Tom is given an important dispatch, ordering up supporting brigades. He proceeds on his mission, but is pursued and badly wounded. Unable to go on, Tom gives the dispatch to Don, telling him to carry it to Ethel. Don does his part, and Ethel undertakes to deliver the order. She is hotly pursued by Confederate cavalry, and only escapes by jumping her horse from a cliff into the river, a deed which none of her pursuers will attempt. They do not fire upon her, but wave their hats and cheer as her horse swims the stream and climbs the other bank. The dispatch is delivered, and the reinforcements begin a forced march to the assistance of the Federals. Meanwhile, Tom has been picked up by a Federal party, unconscious, but not dangerously wounded. The memoranda taken from Frank is found in his pocket, and it is concluded that he is the supposed traitor. A drum-head court-martial condemns him to he shot. The battle is now raging fiercely, the victorious Confederates pressing steadily forward. The Federal position is carried. Tom is captured and sent to the Confederate rear, where he succeeds in eluding his guards. Despite the sentence hanging over him, he determines to rejoin his troops. Johnston is killed, the triumphant advance of the Confederates falters. Tom reaches the Union lines, he rallies a breaking regiment and leads a fierce charge. The tide of battle is turned; Frank is captured. The battle lulls, the Confederates sullenly withdraw from the field. Tom is immediately arrested and placed under guard. Frank learns of the fate in store for Tom, and to save him, confesses himself to be the spy, Tom is released. Frank is held as a spy, but cleverly effects his escape. Frank goes to his home to attempt to induce his sister to go South with him, as he must accompany the southern army further into the Confederacy. Tom has gone to see his sister, to endeavor to induce her to give up her dangerous work as a Confederate spy, and has been captured by a squad of Confederates while at his home. He sends a note to Ethel informing her of his situation. Ethel secures several Federal troopers and makes her brother a prisoner. Under a white flag, Ethel and her squad approach the Winston home, and Ethel proposes an exchange of prisoners. This is agreed to, as well as a temporary truce; then Tom and Ethel turn to the North, while Frank and Ellen ride away into the Confederacy.
- Ivan Mussak, the head of the Russian secret police, is responsible for the murders of thousands of Jews and the forced exile of thousands more. Isaac Gruenstein and his infant daughter Miriam are the only members of his family to survive one of Mussak's massacres, and Isaac is exiled to Siberia. Miriam, however, becomes Mussak's ward and is raised by nuns in a convent. Eighteen years later Isaac dies in Siberia, but before he does he writes a note to his daughter and gives it to fellow prisoner Rachel Shapiro, who manages to escape and, by chance, finds Miriam. However, circumstances have changed in the past 18 years--and Miriam is now Mussak's mistress.
- Ed Watson and Billy, the rat, crooks operating in New York, are "breaking in" Nell Forest, who has had the misfortune of being brought up in an evil atmosphere. The crooks spot Maurice Fielding, son of a jeweler, having stores in New York and Chicago, as a victim, and Nell makes his acquaintance. Maurice proves to be a different kind of man than any she has known. He falls in love with her and she with him. With this comes a hatred for Watson. Billy and all that they stand for. Maurice proposes marriage, but she refuses because she knows she has no right to wed an honest man; she wants to break away from her evil companions. Then perhaps she can tell Maurice everything and he will keep on loving her. But Watson is not to be so easily shaken off. He learns that Maurice is going to Chicago and that his trunk will contain jewelry. He and Billy hatch a plot to rob the trunk. They send for Nell, who is forced to come at their call. They tell her she is necessary to the proposed robbery. Nell refuses to help them and threatens to warn Maurice until they threaten that they can put Maurice wise to Nell's past. She would do anything rather than have Maurice know just yet. Watson also promises to give Nell her freedom after just this one more job. She is to buy a ticket for Valley Springs, a summer resort on the road to Chicago, and to travel on the same train with Maurice. A trunk is secured and lock arranged so that it can be opened from inside. Billy gets into the trunk and it is checked to Valley Springs, to which place Watson has gone the day before. Maurice is delighted that Nell will make part of the journey with him. The two trunks are put into the same baggage car. While the train is going Billy climbs out of Nell's trunk. The baggage man sees him in time to dodge. A fierce battle with revolvers ensues until Billy wounds the baggage man. It only takes a minute to transfer the jewelry from Maurice's trunk to Nell's and when the train reaches Valley Springs, Billy stands at the door of the baggage coach and throws Nell's trunk off. Nell hands the baggage master her check and requests him to lift her trunk on an automobile. (Watson is in the auto.) Nell also climbs in and is waving good-bye to Maurice when the wounded baggage man recovers and springs on Billy. Billy has intended to go to the next station. The recovery of the baggage man spoils everything. Billy jumps out of the car, catches Watson's auto as it is turning a corner and jumps into it. A race ensues between the crooks' auto and pursuers, The road leads to a river. The drawbridge is open and Watson sees it too late to stop, turning the machine it plunges over the cliff into the river. Watson goes to the bottom with the car, but Billy and Nell are thrown out into the river. Maurice, who is in the pursuing auto, sees Nell struggling in the water. Although he now knows her for what she is, an impulse which he cannot resist compels him to dive to her rescue. A row boat picks up Nell, Maurice and Billy. Before he dies, "the rat" exonerates Nell, tells how she was forced into the robbery, tells how she confessed her love for Maurice and fought against the scheme. Well! Maurice does the right thing -- Moving Picture World synopsis
- Young English boy Paul Kegsworthy lives with his brutal stepfather after his real father was thrown in jail. Paul eventually runs away and arrives in London, changing his name to Paul Savelli. Young Princess Sophie Zobraska takes Paul under her wing, sees that he's educated and, when she feels he's ready, grooms him to run for Parliament. His opponent, Silas Finn, is an older and more established politician, and one day he comes to Paul and demands that he bow out of the race, but Paul Refuses. Finn, however, has an ace up his sleeve that Paul hasn't counted on.
- A woman is betrayed by her cruel husband, who uses their child to further torment her.
- In the Canadian Northwest, Jen Galbraith lives in a tavern with her brother Val and her father Peter, a bootlegger who sells whiskey to the Indians. Val's friend Pierre resolves to win Jen, even though she is in love with Sergeant Tom Gellatly of the Mounted Police. When Val tries to retrieve some liquor sold illegally by the elder Galbraith to an Indian named Grey Cloud, the Indian insults Jen and Val shoots him. Tom is assigned to track down the murderer, but after he arrives at the tavern, Galbraith and Pierre drug him. Jen delivers the papers he is carrying to police headquarters, but when she discovers that they contain orders to arrest her brother, she shoots Tom to prevent him from going after Val. Pierre appears and attacks Jen, and soon after, Val returns, followed closely by a squad of police. Val and Jen force Pierre to confess that he killed Grey Cloud, and Tom tells the police that he shot himself accidentally.
- Gerald Kinney is a roué and travels with a fast set, having plenty of money to indulge his tastes and going the pace that kills. He is somewhat satiated with the life he is leading and his better nature asserts itself at times. He leaves his club, where the wine is flowing and the tables are strewn with poker chips, and motors out into the country. In a pretty wooded dell, by the side of a quaint old well, he meets Myrtle Edgar, a simple country maiden, pretty, pure and demure. It is a revelation to him. The girl is a new type, unlike any woman he has ever seen. She shyly gives him a drink of the cool water. Endeavoring to take liberties with her, he is repulsed, kindly but firmly, and that is a new experience for the debonair clubman. It is a welcome innovation and he sees in her only the pure and holy. Roses grow in profusion in the pretty spot and she plucks one and fastens it on his lapel. The rose acts as a talisman. Whenever he is tempted to do wrong, he regards the flower. His friends rail at him and wish to learn his secret, but he guards it jealously; gradually dropping his old acquaintances and leading a more quiet life. The memory of the sweet country girl is always before him. At a swell society function, he suddenly thinks of her and is distrait. He leaves his handsomely gowned partner and walks out into the night, the memory of Myrtle haunting him. He seeks her out and makes an honest declaration of his love, but she intuitively divines there is a disparity in their station. He tells her of his past life and she puts him on probation. They are married and after a few years of wedded life a child comes to gladden their hearts. One night the wife is conning a book and finds between the leaves a pressed rose. She questions him and he tells her it is the rose she gave him at the old well, the flower that made a man of him and brought him a true and trusting wife, making his life brighter.
- An arrogant young man leaves his Ohio home to make it big on Broadway in New York City when he inherits the family business and $1-million. However, things don't go quite according to his plans. After he blows most of the money, he returns to Ohio to try to sell the family business to raise more money, but complications ensue.
- Corianton is unsure of his father Alma's religious teachings until God strikes down a religious foe. Converted, he becomes a successful missionary until seduced by the harlot Isabel. Struck with guilt, he runs away until discovered by his brother Shiblon who is then killed. While mourning, Corianton has a vision of Jesus and leads his people in victorious battle.
- A penniless European aristocrat finds love in the tobacco fields of Cuba.
- Gilbert Irving and Bertie Erroll have been inseparable companions since boyhood. At a house party Mrs. Allen announces the engagement of her daughter, Lucille, to Gilbert and the pair are congratulated. At the reception Madam Eloise and her companion, a count, are introduced. Gilbert is at once infatuated by her charms, and neglects Lucille. Bertie sees the trend of affairs. By intimidation and money he induces the count to leave, but the woman remains. The count informs her that she has Bertie to reckon with and resolves to defy Bertie. Gilbert loves the woman madly. Madam Eloise sets about it to effect an estrangement between the friends and incidentally remove the opposition of Bertie. She first succeeds in making Gilbert insanely jealous, and then writes Bertie an impassioned letter declaring her love for him, knowing that he will be too honorable to divulge the contents. Bertie replies to her in a denunciation. Gilbert discovers the correspondence and demands that the Madam show him the note. She burns it and then tells him Bertie has tried to force his attention on her and, failing, has written her an insulting letter. Gilbert is wild with anger. The plans of the woman do not miscarry. Gilbert challenges Bertie to a duel and his friend has no alternative than to fight. Lucille is dangerously ill and Gilbert and Bertie are summoned to her bedside. Bertie arrives first and she dies. The grief of Bertie is pitiful. He throws himself across the form of the girl and his anguish is witnessed by Gilbert. Bertie is thoroughly aroused and he asserts himself, being shown in his true character. He orders Gilbert from the room. Gilbert and Bertie meet on the field of honor. Bertie discharges hi pistol in the air, but falls mortally wounded. Gilbert bends over him, and with his remaining strength, Bertie gives him the note received from the perfidious woman and falls back dead. Gilbert reads and it is revealed to him the treachery of the woman, the innocence of his friend, and his headstrong action. All stand out clear and he is stricken with remorse. He proceeds to his home and seeks out the woman. He confronts her with the letter. She denies having written it and he, in his rage, forgets that he is a gentleman, that she is his guest and orders her from his house. She goes and Gilbert falls, prostrated with grief and remorse.
- A series of unsigned letters circulates in the village of Queenstead, accusing various upstanding citizens of less than stellar behavior. Two detectives try to discover the identity of the sender, but their task is complicated when the infant child of prominent Morton Wells is kidnapped. The detectives develop information that leads them to a mysterious robed figure, who they follow to the home of the town's religious leader, Bishop Filbert, whose daughter Allayne has received one of the "poison pen" letters.
- Marsa, a spirited, beautiful and wealthy young Parisian, is the illegitimate daughter of a gypsy mother and a Russian prince. At a young age, she becomes entangled in an affair with Count Menko, a married man, but later forgets this unhappy incident and falls in love with Prince Zilah of Hungary. When Count Menko threatens to give the prince certain compromising letters unless she agrees to resume their affair, she sets her wolfhounds on him, disfiguring him permanently. The letters are sent to Zilah on the night he and Marsa are married, and he immediately leaves her, causing her to go insane. Count Varhely, Prince Zilah's oldest friend, challenges Menko to a duel and kills him, after which he convinces the prince to forgive Marsa. At the sight of her husband, Marsa regains her sanity and leaves the sanitarium to live with him in Hungary.
- Bored by the slow pace of life in her little home town, Helen Drayton rebels when her friends and relatives assume that she will marry her friend and escort, Chet Vernon. Helen is so anxious to experience life in the big city that she falls in love with visiting New York architect John Galvin almost immediately after his arrival. Several weeks later, the two marry and move to New York, where, after a series of painful experiences, Helen finally realizes John's selfishness. In the end, she gratefully returns home and becomes Chet's wife.
- Young Frank Stratton, the scion of a wealthy family who is temporarily short of funds, has borrowed a valuable bracelet and hasn't returned it to its owner. A crooked detective, Jim Foley, finds the bracelet in Stratton's possession and promises not to arrest him for it in return for Stratton signing a confession that he stole it, which Foley intends to use at a future date. Years pass and a political boss in danger of losing an election asks Foley's help in getting valuable papers from his opponent, Worthington Lawrence. Foley knows that Lawrence is a friend of Stratton and tells Stratton that unless he steals those papers Foley will make his signed confession public. Complications ensue.
- Ethel Sinclair is seated in the garden adjoining her home when her lover, Alfred King, enters. She has just finished a letter she has written which she gives him then leaves the garden in company with another young man. The letter is a cruel on, informing King of the engagement that has existed between them is terminated on account of the King's poverty. The scene shifts to the office of Samuel Morton, an aged broker, who is desperate on account of financial reverses. He enters a room in a hotel and writes a farewell letter to his friends. King also decides to take his own life and engages apartments in the same hostelry and writes a note to Ethel. Morton produces a revolver to shoot himself and King resolves on the poison route. King overturns the bottle of poison and Morton hears the noise and seeks another mode of shuffling. In turn King and Morton repair to a high bridge, and are about to jump over when a little girl appears and frustrates their plans. She comes to Morton with a teddy bear and he leads her away, leaving the bear on the wall. King appears and is about to throw himself over when the child returns for the doll and her mother joins her. King loses his nerve and follows them. Morton returns to his room and takes out his revolver. King enters the adjoining room, removes his hat and coat and then turns on the gas. He falls from his chair, overcome by the fumes of the gas, just as Morton is about to shoot himself. Morton hears the noise and goes into the room of King and takes the young man into his (Morton's) apartment, drags him to the window and revives him. Morton gives King a bit of advice on hearing his story. Both agree to begin the battle of life anew and to be brave. They leave the hotel and walk away with the light of new hope shining in their faces, their troubles lightened by the recent experience.
- Patrolman Jim Ryan falls in love with Alice Bennett, a dressmaker, only to realize later that she is a dead ringer for Dorothy Stone, a noted thief. When Jim is ordered to arrest Alice for Dorothy's crimes, he tells the captain that it would be a grave injustice, but the captain will not believe him. Jim is suspended from the force and sets out to bring Dorothy Stone before the law. Using Alice to impersonate Dorothy, Jim gets in touch with her gang. Dorothy is killed in a fight, and Alice is kidnapped. Jim goes after the abductor in a police launch and rescues Alice. Jim is reinstated to the force, and he and Alice are wed.
- Jane Forrest is the assistant editor of "The Evening Blade," owned and managed by Henry Arnold, who has come to depend upon Jane as his "right-hand man." Though Arnold likes Jane well enough, and finds her companionable as well as efficient, he never guesses that she is hiding a love for him. Jane's sister, Sybil, has caused her many hours of worry through thoughtless affairs with men, and though Sybil has done nothing wrong, Jane would welcome her marriage to some man who would protect her from danger. Jane especially fears Donald Paulding. Sybil breaks her promise not to see Paulding, and goes with him to a café. The same evening Arnold invites Jane to go to supper with him. Jane pleads that she is not dressed for supper, but Arnold tells her that she does not have to "doll up" for him. They are just pals. Jane then knows that her love for Arnold is hopeless. They go to the same café, and meet Sybil and Paulding. Arnold becomes interested in the younger girl and Sybil at length marries Arnold. But the younger girl has long been used to pleasure and finds life with Arnold more than dull. To her the climax is reached when Arnold finds it necessary to break a theater engagement and return to the office. Arnold thinks of Sybil's loneliness and 'phones Jane to go and spend the evening with her. When Jane reaches the house she finds that Sybil has gone out with Paulding. She remains, however, and when Sybil and Paulding return, she surprises them in embrace in the hallway. At this point, Arnold reaches the house, and finds the three in a tense situation. Jane saves Sybil by declaring that Paulding had come with her. While Arnold is away on business Sybil plans with Paulding to elope. Jane learns of their plan and determines to thwart it. At a dance given by Sybil, Jane appears stylishly gowned and carries all the men before her. She ensnares Paulding, in accordance with her plan, and Sybil discovers her admirer proposing to her sister, under the influence of Jane's intimation that she has saved a great deal of money. Sybil bursts into a rage, but is met with a cool rejoinder from Jane. Sybil sees her mistake and rushes to her room. Jane's purpose accomplished, sue immediately 'phones Sybil, but is met with a sniff of disdain, and Sybil turns from the 'phone to rush into the arms of her returning husband. Arnold tells her that he is going to retire from the paper and turn it over Jane, as that is all she thinks about.
- Two brothers, one a minister and the other a cad, both love the same girl.
- Morgan Kleath, fleeing an unfaithful wife in San Francisco, goes to the Yukon to establish a daily newspaper. Shortly after arriving, he meets Goldie Meadows, the ward of dance hall proprietor Tim Meadows. Upon exhibiting an interest in Goldie, Morgan arouses the jealousy of Joe Duke, one of her admirers, and during a fight between the two, Goldie comes to Kleath's aid when he is stabbed in the back. Later, when Duke's associates rob Meadow's safe, a number of clues point to Kleath and he is arrested and charged with the crime. Just as the court declares him guilty, Kleath's wife arrives from San Francisco and testifies that she had seen Kleath and Goldie together the night of the robbery. To save Goldie's reputation, Kleath had refused to defend himself with this alibi. After completing her testimony, Mrs. Kleath is shot and killed by members of the Duke gang, freeing Kleath to make Goldie an "honest woman."
- Youth leaves his mother at the behest of Ambition and with Love and Hope goes to the city, where he encounters Pleasure and asks Opportunity to wait; but she refuses and leaves him. At the Primrose Path (a cabaret), Pleasure introduces him to Beauty, Wealth, Fashion, and Temptation. Youth's mother dies, and Love sends him a telegram, which is intercepted by Temptation; and when Love comes to the city, she is turned away from the Primrose Path. Chance directs Youth to a gambling house where he loses everything but the ring given him by Love, and he is haunted by Poverty and Delusion. With the exception of Temptation, all have forgotten him. He meets Vice and Habit and finally consents to go with Crime to rob Wealth's house. On the way he hears a church choir singing and decides to go home; with Experience he returns where Love and Hope await him. Ambition again seeks Youth, who with Love at his side starts a new life.
- The Duchess and Duke of Granville are social leaders of Brussels and favorites at the Court of King Leopold. The Duke, however, pays more attention to great speculative enterprises than court functions, and leaves the Duchess to her own sweet will as far as amusements and admirers are concerned, and she has many of both. Aside from the King himself, her most ardent admirer is Prince Nordoff. a Russian adventurer, and his attentions become so distasteful to her that she is compelled to rebuke him in the presence of a large company, thereby incurring his secret enmity. One night a grand reception is given at the Palace of the Duchess, and, among other entertainments, the Duchess creates a sensation by giving a dance of great beauty and abandon, which creates the impression among her titled guests. While the festivities are at their height, the Duke is going over the accounts of his wildest financial enterprise, finds himself suddenly made bankrupt, and is taken home, where the splendid entertainment is brought to a sudden termination by the news that he is lying at the point of death. Left a widow, the Duchess finds herself penniless, with an idolized son, Victor, whom she determines shall be reared in affluence. Accordingly, she places him in a school, presents herself for trial before a noted theatrical manager, and soon becomes the most famous dancer in Europe, under the title of "The White Mask." This sobriquet grew out of the fact that, not wishing to make public property of such a noble title as that of her dead husband, her performances have always been given with her face concealed behind a white mask, and not even her manager has the slightest notion of her identity. Attracting the attention of King Leopold, she is showered with many gifts from him, and is even honored by a banquet at the Regal Palace, where many notables pay her court. During the progress of the feast the King asks her to grant him the honor of permitting him to see her face, and she consents on condition that the disclosure shall be made only to him. As they withdraw from the table, the other guests, quite as anxious as his Majesty to learn who "The White Mask" can he, prevail upon Nordoff, who is present, to act as a spy upon the King and his noted guest, so that they, too, may be let into the secret. When he returns, however, he is compelled to announce that it was impossible for him to see the face of the dancer as she lifted her mask for Leopold. But at the close of the banquet, as she was stepping into her carriage, he impertinently tore the mask from her face, for which act the indignant lady slapped him with her fan and reported him to the King. The next day the newspapers were full of glaring headlines announcing the identity of "The White Mask," but from that day she never appeared in public again, and disappeared from Europe. Fifteen years elapse, and we find the former Duchess of Granville living in splendor in New York, as Mrs. Dean, a notable woman financier and leader of society. Her son, Victor, fresh from college and supplied with an abundant fortune, has become betrothed to Frances, only daughter of millionaire Blake, and his mother has given her hand to John Emerson, a well-known and very wealthy capitalist and promoter. Nordoff and an associate named Von Stader have come to America to float a rubber enterprise in the United States, and have letters of recommendation to John Emerson. Before these letters are presented, however, the two men encounter Emerson and Mrs. Dean at the jeweler's, and at once recognize her. Von Stader insists that they both keep her secret inviolate, but Nordoff decides to apply it as one of the levers to secure the confidence of Emerson. Nordoff has won the friendship of the dashing widow Bryce, whom he finds most valuable as an assistant in perfecting his financial plan, for she has once been betrothed to Emerson, and is only too willing to approve any plan that may successfully blackmail Mrs. Dean. At a reception given by Mrs. Dean to celebrate the coming union of four great fortunes, the first steps are taken toward the perfecting of their nefarious enterprise. Fearful of what the consequences of the disclosure of her true identity may be, Mrs. Dean permits herself to be morally blackmailed by the villainous Nordoff, and promises to advise Emerson to enter the financial schemes brought to America by him and Von Stader. But woman's jealousy thwarts the plans of the conspirators, for Mrs. Bryce is seen so much with Emerson during the evening that she excites the jealousy of Mrs. Dean, is called to account, and calls the guests together to inform them of an impostor sailing under false colors when Nordoff prevents her and takes her from the house. Nordoff is refused admittance to the Dean home, and word is sent to him to do his worst, since Mrs. Dean has decided not to carry out her bargain with him. Nordoff and Mrs. Bryce repair to Emerson's office and tell him the story of "The White Mask," without telling who she had been before assuming that title. Emerson breaks his engagement with Mrs. Dean and tells her that he has resumed his severed engagement with Mrs. Bryce. The letter arrives when Mrs. Dean and Victor are together, and the impetuous youth rushes from the house to Emerson's residence, followed by his mother. The son arrives there before his mother, has a stormy interview with Emerson, who is about to strike Victor when he seizes a dagger paper knife from the table, defends himself with it, and in the struggle to wrest it from the boy, the two fall to the ground and Emerson receives the weapon in his heart. At the critical moment the mother arrives, finds Emerson dead, and hurries with Victor back to her now broken home. In an impassioned interview with him. she shows him that he must not sever the tie between him and the girl he loves, and must permit his mother to stand trial for the killing of Emerson. The thought is at once spurned by Victor, when his mother compels compliance by producing a vial of poison and swearing to kill herself. On the following day she is arrested for the crime. During all of the trial the heart-wracked son cannot speak because of his mother's threat, and his one comfort is his fiancée, Frances, who, in spite of the commands of her parents, leaves her home and clings to mother and son during the fearful ordeal. All of the evidence, save alone that of Von Stader, who tells the story of her heroic past, is against her, and the verdict is guilty. Then it is that the son can no longer be silent, and immediately upon the pronouncement of the word "Guilty," he avers his own guilt, and his heart-broken mother falls to the floor and is carried to an adjoining room, where she passes away just as Victor is being led to prison. During the progress of the trial, the associates of the dead man Emerson discover that the business scheme of Nordoff is a fraud, and he and Von Stader are summoned before them. Nordoff refuses to make a single move toward reparation, but Von Stader. who learns for the first time of the perfidy of his associate, surrenders his entire fortune to preserve his hitherto unblemished reputation. On the day of Mrs. Dean's death, Von Stader purchases a pair of handcuffs, and going to Nordoff's room, binds and gags him so that he may not escape and goes to report his case to the police. As he passes down the stairs he discovers that the hotel has caught fire through the explosion of a boiler. His first impulse is to save Nordoff. but, believing that this is the retribution selected by Heaven, he proceeds to the street and coolly watches the hotel burn to the ground. In due time Victor is tried and summarily acquitted.
- While visiting New York, Ogden Fenn finds himself charmed with Diana Manners, wife of Frank Manners, an architect who is away on business in San Francisco, and they become involved. The husband returns unexpectedly and learns that his wife loves Fenn. When Diana and Fenn go to the latter's cabin near New York, Mrs. Hastings, who though married loves Frank, persuades him not to interfere because of the effects on his child. Mr. Hastings, learning of his wife's own infidelity, motors to the cabin, forces Fenn into his car, and drives the vehicle over a steep embankment. Mrs. Hastings then brings Manners and Diana back together.
- A woman unhappily married to a blackguard is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds her sole companion to be a young man recently jilted. Both of them despise the opposite sex, but after a little time on the island....
- A Wall Street financier oppressed with care and worry, sees some children playing near a great hotel and becomes desirous of reliving the scenes of his childhood. He hurries to his car, is driven to the old country homestead where he was born, and takes a walk through the orchard. A bite of fruit brings back memories of his younger days, afternoon ball games, the daily hike to the old swimming hole, and the days of his youth through the stages of maturity until he leaves for the city to make his fortune. He joins in a baseball game with some youngsters, and he notices an attractive middle-aged woman on the road whom he recognizes as his boyhood sweetheart. They exchange greetings and happily walk down the rustic lane.
- Nedda Trevor, a little street urchin from New York's Lower West Side, is hit by Paul Winslow's car. Paul takes the shaken but unhurt girl for a ride through the countryside to make amends, and Nedda soon develops a crush on him. Her cruel, dissolute stepfather Ralph Edgars plots to swindle Paul in connection with the accident, but Nedda foils his plans. Years later, Nedda, who still loves Paul, refuses the hand of her wealthy employer, Frank Graves. Edgars kills Nedda's mother in a drunken rage and Nedda is falsely accused. Paul reads of the arrest and, recognizing Nedda through the Trevor family ring she has worn since childhood, he comes to her rescue. Edgars is arrested and Paul marries Nedda.
- Although everyone thought Harry to be the son of Judge Marshall Tingley, he was really the child of Tom Drook, an unscrupulous outlaw, and leader of the clan of the Drooks, who had held sway in the mountains twenty years earlier. At that time, the Tingleys rose against the Drooks and all but Tom was shot. He attempted to escape by jumping from the top of the cliff into the water below, and was given up as drowned. The baby, Harty, was found by John Gray, the hermit of the hills, and was taken to Marshall Tingley, who consented to adopt him, but who kept his identity secret. At the age of twenty-two, Harry is the companion of his supposed sister, June, the daughter of Judge Tingley. She is greatly attached to him, and when Judge Tingley notes their attitude toward each other, he tells them of Harry's identity. June is embarrassed by the disclosure, and to hide her confusion, welcomes her dissolute cousin, Burr Tingley. When Harry objects and engages in a fight with Burr, the Judge interferes, and Harry, thinking the Judge is against him, because he is a Drook, leaves. Burr writes Harry a challenge to a pistol duel at a mountain plateau known as "Heirs Half-Acre." At first Harry refuses to accept the challenge, and tears the note in two, then, reconsidering, he writes an acceptance, naming John Gray, the old hermit, as his second. In the mountain cabin. Gray, the hermit, finds a stranger hiding and in him he recognizes the long-missing Tom Drook, Harry's father. The shock of the recognition proves too much for the weak heart of the old hermit and he sinks to the floor. Tom Drook finds him dead, and hard pressed by a western sheriff wanting him for murder, he disguises himself as the hermit. When Harry arrives to ask Gray to act as his second, Tom, thinking the boy the son of his enemy, agrees. Blake, the sheriff, who is following Tom, learns of a threat against the life of Judge Tingley, and secretly guards the house at night. He is seen by the Judge, who searches the lawn the next morning for signs of him. There he and June find the torn challenge, and hurry to the Half-Acre to prevent the duel. Tom Drook, planning a crafty vengeance, kills Burr Tingley, in a way to give the impression that Harry has shot him from ambush, and when June and her father reach the Half-Acre they find the boy in custody. That night the Tingleys, intent on vengeance for Burr's death, take Harry from the jail and plan a lynching at the plateau. In the cabin of the hermit Tom Drook sees his own son pass to his death, gloating in the thought that it is the son of his enemy. June and her father learn of the lynching and start out to save Harry. In the cabin Tom finds the diary of the old hermit and in it he reads proof that Harry is his own son. Horror-stricken by his act, he starts for the plateau to save him. The Tingleys place Harry against a rock, raise their guns and fire. When the smoke clears away they find the hermit, sinking to the ground, and Harry unhurt. It is Tom Drook, who has rushed in and taken the bullets intended for his son. June and her father reach the Half-Acre just as Tom breathes his last, and though Harry has lost a father, in June he has won a wife.
- Miss Jane Prue uses her newfound woman's rights to make a Leap Year marriage proposal to the Rev. Percival Jenks. The minister, who really loves Sue Grant, tries to dodge the militant old maid, but in vain. He is timid and not self-possessed and failing to oppose the proposition at the crucial moment, Jane quickly spreads the news and loses no time in closing the deal. On the day assigned for the nuptials, Jane, not intending to run any risk, calls for the pastor at his lodgings. She pounds on his door but receives no response. In the meanwhile Jenks is racing to the depot. Old man Prue, who has been sent on an errand for his daughter, encounters the minister and cheerfully assists him to escape. The landlady and her three sons also assist in the exodus, which is successfully accomplished.
- Jack Lowe's fiancée, Ann, worships romance. A few days prior to her planned marriage with Jack, Ann is visited by her cousin, Nora, who brings along her chum, Dick Rogers. By this time Jack has determined to disillusion Ann, realizing that if she does not get the silly idea out of her head, their married life will be seriously marred. Jack goes to Nora for advice. Nora has been secretly in love with Jack all along. Also Dick has developed an affection for Ann which he is trying hard to conceal. Nora, delighted at the opportunity of giving Jack "advice," suggests that he arrange to have Ann kidnapped from the marriage altar in a highly romantic way by a handsome masked highwayman. She suggests that Dick play the highwayman, and take Ann to the country home of Dick's Aunt Amelia and there keep her imprisoned until she is disillusioned forever about romance. The affair is carried out as planned. As time passes, Jack begins to worry. Instead of the letters begging for his help that he had expected from Ann, he receives only subtly worded messages which convey the impression that Ann is not only enjoying her romantic experience, but is falling in love with her abductor. Jack, realizing he is not yet Ann's husband, becomes desperate, but Nora is secretly delighted. While Ann and Dick make constant love under Aunt Amelia's chaperonage, Jack develops more and more tenderness for Nora. But his desperation as concerns Ann grows worse and worse when he receives a wire from her reading: "I am in love. What shall I do?" Jack wires back "Wait for me and sit tight." While he makes a mad dash for a train, taking Nora along with him, Ann obeys Jack's telegram to the letter and "sits tight" with Dick on all occasions. The presence of Ann at Aunt Amelia's home fans into a flame the almost extinct love-fire of two old hayseeds boarding at Amelia's, Hy and Jed. They play checkers constantly to see which of them shall win the fair lady from the city. One day, after they have come to blows following a heated argument as to their respective claims upon Ann, they look through the window and see Ann being married to Dick. Jack's former fiancée has not only been unchanged by her severe lesson, but has proved herself a stronger advocate of romance than ever by marrying the handsome young chap who was employed by Jack to abduct her. Jack and Nora, meanwhile, arrive breathless in the little rural village to learn from the Justice of the Peace that Dick and Ann are just being married. Nora and Jack hurry to Aunt Amelia's, where the wedding is just being completed and a big barn dance about to start. After the ravings of Jack and the hilarity of the others have subsided, Ann suggests a way out of the difficulty by having Jack marry Nora, just what the foxy little Nora had been wishing for.
- Hermann Von Schultz plays first violin at the Pikes Opera House, Cincinnati. In the ballet is a young French girl, Marguerite Ne Moyer. Her father has been dead two years and her mother is employed as a forewoman in a department store. Marguerite has a fair voice, and the violinist takes great pleasure in instructing her when opportunity permits. One night on leaving the store Marguerite's mother is knocked down by a wagon and receives injuries from which she dies a few days later. At last Herman summons up courage and proposes marriage. Marguerite accepts him. A year passes and they have a baby girl. The wife is frequently visited by her female theatrical chums, who continually remind her that she has tied herself to a man of small quality. They describe pictures of what her life might he if she were free. The poison weeds are sown, and one day, Marguerite leaves her home, husband and child and goes to New York to join a local company at an excellent salary. Five years pass and Hermann, broken-hearted, has moved to Milwaukee and working, his only comfort is the child, little Madeleine. He goes to the theater every performance to play and locks the child in, placing the key in a flowerpot outside of the window so that she can get it in case of emergency. On Christmas Eve a blizzard is raging, but Herman must go to work. He puts the child to bed, puts the key in the flowerpot, and leaves the house. Presently a knock is heard at the door. Madeleine, who is in bed in the next room, thinks that it is Santa Clans and calls out that the key is in the flowerpot. A woman appears at the window; she gets the key and lets herself in. It is the mother, bedraggled and starving. The child cannot resist the temptation to peek in and see Santa Claus. She sees the woman and tells her she has no right to come into the house. The mother pleads for protection as the storm will kill her if she is driven out. Madeleine tells her that her father will not allow any woman in the house, but after much persuasion tells the woman she may go upstairs and sleep in the attic. The mother embraces the child, who again goes to bed. The storm is so bad that the theater cannot open and Hermann returns. Madeleine had again replaced the key in the flowerpot and the violinist comes in and sits down in front of the fire. Madeleine creeps in and again persuades him to play the favorite tune. The mother upstairs hears the violin and commences to sing the refrain. Hermann hears it and demands of the child who is upstairs. The child replies that it is a woman. Hermann recognizes the voice, he rushes in and brings his long lost wife out. She has returned, as he knew she would. The mother embraces the child frantically, then puts her to bed again. The scene, closes as Hermann tells Marguerite to go and get one of the child's stockings. They nail it on the mantelpiece and Hermann goes to a bureau drawer and gets a lot of toys that he has laid in. The two fill the stockings, then sit down by the fire as Hermann fills up his pipe and takes his repentant wife in his arms.
- The picture opens with a close-up of a Hindu priest kneeling before a large bell. This fades into a scene of Hindu girls engaged in a lively Oriental dance. Again the scene fades out and we see John Lane, the novelist, seated at a desk in his den, gazing with apparent amazement at a large bell that is hanging near an open window. His wife enters and he asks her to close the window, telling her that the bell rang of its own accord. The scene then shifts to the apartment of Prof. Nassaib Haig, who is praying with a priest at a shrine of Buddha. The professor dines the following day with John Lane, who tells him that his descriptions of India will be a great help to him in writing his novel. On entering the novelist's den after dinner the professor sees the bell and bows to it, greatly to the surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Lane. After the professor has left Mrs. Lane looks in a dazed manner at the bell and suddenly screams and falls in a faint to the floor. Lane and the butler rush to her assistance. On recovering from her faint she insists that the bell is haunted, as she heard it strike nine times. This seems to rouse the curiosity of the butler, who examines the bell. Later we see the professor confiding to the priest that he has discovered the long lost sacred bell of Tajmahal Temple, and they plan to get possession of it. Accordingly, the professor goes to a curio dealer and gives him a commission to secure the bell, warning him that Mr. Lane must never know of whom it is being purchased. The curio dealer calls on Lane and tells him that, knowing him to be a fancier of antiques, he thought he must have some he would care to dispose of. Mrs. Lane suggests that her husband dispose of the haunted bell, but he tells the curio dealer that he wouldn't sell it for $1,000, having made up his mind to solve its mystery, and the butler is a silent witness to their conversation. On reporting Lane's refusal to part with the bell for $1,000, the professor authorizes the curio dealer to offer him $5,000 for it, and a Hindu servant overhears this from behind the portieres. Back in the Lane parlor Mrs. Lane notes that the clock registers noon, and on entering the novelist's den, both she and her husband are astounded to hear the bell ring twelve times. Presently the curio dealer enters and makes the offer of $5,000 for the bell. That evening, while trying to solve the mystery of its spontaneous ringing, Lane sees that it is ten minutes to nine by the steeple clock in the distance and regulates his clock accordingly. Ten minutes later he hears the clock strike nine and a light dawns upon him, as the bell rings at the same time. Mrs. Lane enters the den and he tells her that it is a case of sound vibration, explaining that the steeple clock and the bell are in tune when the window is open, but when the window is closed the sound vibration is cut off. Next morning Lane discovers in his den the body of the curio dealer. Meanwhile the butler is leaning against the door with pajamas in his hands. Lane goes to the door, opens it and the butler falls into the room in a nervous fright. Lane orders him to report the murder to the police, and the butler hides the pajamas behind the door. Mr. and Mrs. Lane find the pajamas, the coat of which is spotted with blood. When the butler returns from telephoning the police Lane confronts him with the blood-stained pajamas and accuses him of the murder, but the butler declares he can explain the blood stains. He tells them that, after going to bed, he heard a gun discharged. He jumped up, ran into the hallway and found a man stretched out on the floor. In placing his hand over the man's heart to ascertain if life was extinct his hand became stained with blood, which he tried to wipe off on his sleeve. Lane doubts his story and presently admits a detective, several policemen and the Hindu servant of the professor. Requested to give an explanation of the Hindu's presence, the detective says: "This man was arrested in this neighborhood last night. We brought him along, thinking he might be concerned in the case." The detective then asks to see the dead body, and proceeds to put the Hindu through the third degree. The Hindu acknowledges the crime, while Lane turns to his wife and says: "Now, I will get rid of the haunted bell."
- Carl Danmitz, a poor but talented violinist, engages a room in an obscure boarding house and pursues his studies. Gretchen Bleeker resides across the street, and through the open window where she is wont to sit, hears the sweet strains of his violin. One day while Gretchen is listening, she knocks over a plant. The musician hastens out, picks up the flower, and thus they meet and go for a stroll. Carl receives an offer to play at a society benefit for charity. He is overjoyed at the chance. His happiness is of short duration, for he realizes that he has not the proper clothing to appear at the benefit. Gretchen has been hoarding her money, and offers to make a sacrifice for his sake. She gives him her little savings of months and he is enabled to make a presentable appearance at his debut. His first public performance is an immediate success. He is invited to the homes of the wealthy. He forgets the young girl who was kind to him in his poverty and he meets and falls in love with Marie von Blumen, the daughter of the woman who first brought him out. Gretchen, pining for her lover, gradually wastes away in strength. On the eve of dying, she expresses a wish to see Carl once more and hear the sweet tones of his violin. Her mother seeks him not, finding him at the home of his fiancée, surrounded by admirers. She is persistent in her request to see him and is finally admitted. She implores him to come to her daughter. Marie grasps the situation and urges him to go to the bedside of the girl and he does so, accompanied by his fiancée. They find Gretchen dying. She holds out her arms to Carl and is taken to him, happy, supremely happy in the knowledge that he loves her and ignorant of his vows to Marie. It is all explained to Marie and she bids her lover make the girl his wife. A marriage ceremony is hastily performed and then Carl plays as he has never played before. Gretchen expires in an ecstasy of joy, to the strains of her favorite melody.
- Cecil Abbott is the foreman of the Canby fruit ranch in Cuba and also a favorite suitor for the hand of Edna, the daughter of a ranchman. The mother of Don Alvarez, an old time friend of Canby, sends her son to Cuba to enjoy the hospitality of her schoolmate of years ago. Don Alvarez sees Edna, and is smitten by her charms. He also notes her love for the handsome foreman and plots his ruin. Cecil is entrusted with the mail bag and rides away to the post office. Cecil meets Edna while returning from the post office and they engage in a little talk. The scene is broken in upon by the Spaniard, who steals forth and takes the mail pouch from Cecil's horse. The rancher comes out for his mail to find it gone. Cecil is accused of having robbed the mail pouch. Don Alvarez decides to secrete it in the top-most branches of a palm tree. Later, Don Alvarez receives a letter from his mother conveying the intelligence that she has sent him money by a former mail, and the villain discovers that it is in the sack that he has secreted in the tree. Leaving, he climbs the tree to look down and discovers Edna and Cecil. He loses his hold and falls, carrying with him the bag. He is found, bruised and dying at the foot of the tree by Edna and Cecil. The honest young fellow carries his rival to the ranch and Canby is summoned. Edna has picked up the mail bag and follows, mystified. Her entrance with the bag rouses the Spaniard and, with his dying breath, he confesses his crime, absolving Cecil from all blame. Cecil is restored to the favor of Canby, and Edna is taken in his arms. Don Alvarez dies, and the inference is, that Cecil is promoted form ranch manager to son-in-law.
- When the dominating financier takes the girl as his private secretary he secures not only an efficient girl but a beautiful one. It is then that his son decides to take an interest in business. His father suspects that his son has suddenly become imbued with business affairs because of the striking young woman secretary he has engaged and tells him that if he intends to go into business he can do so but he does not want him about the office. The son is unsuccessful in many deals and when some bonds are missing the guilty parties manage to successfully charge him with stealing them. In the meantime he had been visiting the charming young secretary of his father and often met his father's cashier coming out of the apartment. He had become furiously jealous and the climax came when he discovered his sweetheart in the arms of the cashier. It is when he is accused of stealing the bonds that he begins to realize that his father's cashier and the pretty secretary are in a plot to ruin his father. And right here is where the story becomes intensely interesting and the suspense is finally lifted. Of course the business rivals become staunch friends again as of yore. But the lovers have come over a rough road in their romance and a pleasant future is also assured for them.
- Dan Barret, a forger, is sought by Balfour, a detective. Barret finding the States a rather dangerous abiding place, goes to Cuba to avoid the officers. He is riding, seeking seclusion, when he comes to the tobacco plantation of Roger Densmore, and American, who has embarked in tobacco culture. On his arrival Barret is taken ill and is cared for by Densmore and his wife. On becoming convalescent he admires the wife of his benefactor and is seized with a devilish idea to possess her. He invites her to accompany him on a horseback ride. She assents and he then forges a letter to her husband, saying the wife no longer loves him and has gone with another man. The wife, unsuspecting, is lured to an isolated portion of the country and Barret appears in his true colors, seizing her and throwing her across his horse gallops away. The mother of Mrs. Densmore finds the note and summons Densmore by servant. Densmore is shown the note and is furious. In company with a servant he sets out to be avenged. They find Barret at bay and he is attacked by the servant and disarmed by Densmore. The planter will not listen to his wife. The compromising situation explains. He gives the cur a chance for his life by extracting all the cartridges in his revolver but one. Then spinning all the cartridges in his revolver but one. Then spinning the cylinder around commands the destroyer of his happiness to shoot. In turn each snaps the hammer until it is Densmore's turn to try the fifth shot with a certainty of the death of Barret. Barret flinches, proves himself a craven coward and begs for his life Densmore allows him five minutes' head start and then with his servant gives chase. Barret runs, but finally falls exhausted just as the faithful servant is about to run him through with his machete. Balfour, the detective, who has followed Barret to Cuba, providentially appears on the scene and saves the life of Barret. He explains Barret is a forger. The detective is shown the note and, to the satisfaction of the husband shows the note to Densmore as a forgery. Barret, brought to a sense of realization confesses, and the husband turns to the wife he has wronged and is forgiven. Barret is led away, and the story closes with the planter taking his faithful wife in his arms; begging her forgiveness for ever doubting her fidelity.
- Bob Thompson is induced by Clarence Dickson to buy an auto, and, after looking at many different makes and kinds, finally gets one that he thinks will suit him. The family immediately decides to take a trip to the seashore and look forward to a very enjoyable day. Bob's daughter, Vivian, her sweetheart, Clarence, Kemp Thompson and his friend John, make up the party. All goes well for a few miles when suddenly the car stops, something is wrong. Vivian discovers that they have no gasoline. Being far out in the country, where gasoline cannot be obtained, they are in a bad fix. The men leave Vivian in the car, and tying a rope to the machine, proceed to haul it until they can find a garage. Though slow, they are getting along all right until going down a hill Vivian, who is at the wheel, runs the car into a wall and smashes it. By this time all are pretty well worn out and disgusted. Bob gets sore and declares he will pull no further, and he walks off, followed by the rest. Finally, after a long hike, they reach home and Bob falls exhausted into a chair, Kemp, John and Clarence come in and try to console him, but Bob chases them out and they beat it very lively, swearing "Never again."
- Jane Ridgeway, the daughter of retired Secret Service man Charles Ridgeway, has inherited her father's knack for solving crimes and puts her talent to work when her sweetheart, Richard Grant, is accused of robbing a bank. Her father, now a bank examiner, works in collusion with two thieves who are acquainted with a master criminal known only as "the Face in the Dark." When the evidence implicates her father in the robbery, Jane confronts him, and although Richard is released from jail, Ridgeway escapes. The two crooks lead him to the Face in the Dark, but as the two men are shaking hands, the place is raided by Secret Service agents who arrest the mysterious criminal and congratulate Ridgeway for his fine detective work. Jane is happily reunited with her sweetheart and her father.
- Henry Wygand, civil engineer, happy in the love of his wife, Elizabeth, and his little son, Jack, receives the contract for the construction of a cement railroad bridge, and awards the sub-contract to supply cement to his wife's father, William Floyd. The father-in-law, however, is a weak old man, completely under the control of Charles Burke, his chief clerk. His business is bad, and under Burke's influence he is persuaded to substitute an inferior grade of cement for the bridge, trusting to Wygand's confidence in him to prevent discovery. Burke's purpose in this is twofold. If the scheme succeeds, he will benefit financially, and if it fails Wygand will be ruined, and Burke will be free to press his attentions upon Elizabeth, with whom he has long been in love. When the bridge is nearing completion, Wygand discovers the faulty cement, but urged by Floyd to save him from financial ruin, he agrees to say nothing about it. Several months after the completion of the bridge the piers give way, and there is a terrible wreck. Investigation shows that the entire structure is weak, and Wygand, shielding his father-in-law, takes his punishment, paying a heavy fine and submitting to a jail sentence. The shock proves too much for Floyd's strength, and he dies, leaving Burke in control of the business. Elizabeth, as her father's heiress, receives payments from Burke, who begins to press his attentions upon her. Finally he suggests that she divorce Wygand and marry him, but Elizabeth refuses to listen. Then Burke tells her that she is penniless. Floyd sold the business to Burke before his death, and the payments to Elizabeth have come from Burke's own pocket. This proves to be true, but Elizabeth does not know that Burke forced the sale of the business under threat of exposure. Burke has taken papers relating to the crooked deal to his home. Burke's servant discovers them, but fails to realize their importance, and is discharged for meddling. Elizabeth eludes Burke and takes lodgings in the poor part of the city where she manages to support Jack by making paper flowers. Time passes. Burke has lost all trace of Elizabeth, but still thinks of her. Burke's servant is arrested as a pickpocket, and is confined in the same jail with Wygand. In the tenement, Jack falls ill, and Elizabeth, herself far from well, starts for assistance. In the street she falls unconscious, and is found by Burke. He realizes his opportunity, and takes both the unconscious woman and her son to his own home. There he gives instructions that she be cared for, but that she be kept in ignorance of the fact that she is in his house. In prison, Burke's servant, dying, tells Wygand of the papers proving Burke's guilt. Elizabeth, partly recovered, is anxious to thank her unknown benefactor. She goes to the library, where she finds Burke. He again begs her to come to him, but she refuses. But Burke will not let her go. In the midst of a struggle Wygand enters. Released from prison, he comes directly to Burke, and arrives in time to save his wife. The papers proving Burke's guilt are found, and Wygand returns to happiness with his little family.
- Hedda, a young Italian girl, is the ranch cook. The ranchers tease her until one day she decides she will stand it no longer. She leaves them in the middle of their dinner and goes off to her favorite spot, a massive rock in the hills, to think it over. McMurtrie, the ranch boss who has been trying to close a land deal with Chief Red Eagle at the Indian agency returns about this time. Hedda comes back and says she is quitting and McMurtrie says she will not and threatens to thrash the first man who teases her again. From then on McMurtrie is Hedda's idol, but she keeps secret her love for him. The ranch owner brings McMurtrie a bag of gold to pay the Indian for the land and departs. McMurtrie becomes fascinated by the gold and battles the temptation to abscond with it. Hedda sees him and her heart is broken, to think that he's a thief at heart. She hurries to her favorite rock to figure out whether she should tell the boys or go to McMurtrie and try to dissuade him. McMurtrie decides to hide the gold under the big rock, Hedda watching from concealment. She leaves the money there and goes back to the ranch without disturbing it. Meanwhile the owner has discovered a flaw in the Indian's title and returns that evening to get the money back. McMurtrie is ready to fly and Hedda is too late to warn him. He cannot explain where the money is, except to tell the owner that it was stolen during the day. The owner will not believe him, and Hedda enters and takes the crime on her shoulders to shield McMurtrie. She talks so fast that McMurtrie has no chance to tell otherwise, and one of the ranch men coming in at the moment with the bag of money that his dog unearthed, the owner accepts her statement, and telling her she is fired and suggesting that she quit the country as well. Out at the rock McMurtrie finds Hedda and tells her that she must stay, which she agrees to do when he suggests that it be as Mrs McMurtrie.
- James Thorne, a defaulting bank cashier, alters the books of the head bookkeeper, Fred Carlisle, to cover his own crime, and Carlisle is arrested and bailed. Carlisle learns that Thorne is guilty and visits him. In the interview between the two men, Carlisle is shot dead, the tragedy is reported as a suicide, and a coroner's verdict is rendered to that effect. Previous to the entrance into the library of the two men on the fatal night, Thorne's son, Carl, a studious boy of seven, concealed himself behind the window draperies and is an unwilling witness. The boy tells his grandmother, who never from that moment for many years trusts him out of her sight lest he reveal the secret. To insure safety he is taken to Europe by his grandmother, educated in a monastery under her supervision and grows up to be a bitter misanthrope, with no companion but his horse. He has even forgotten Elise Carlisle, daughter of the dead man, and the sweetheart of their babyhood. After the tragedy Elsie's mother dies, leaving her with her grandparents. On her nineteenth birthday her grandfather gives her a riding horse and she gallops into the woodland. A passing train frightens her horse, and she is rescued by Carl Thorne. A few words between them discloses the identity of the young people; at first sight Carl becomes deeply infatuated with Elsie, and they agree to revive the love affair of their childhood. But that night Elsie is handed by her grandfather a letter left by her mother, to be presented to her on her nineteenth birthday, and enjoining her to devote the rest of her life to the clearing of guilt from the memory of her father. Believing that this injunction imposes a duty upon her from which there is no escape, she writes Carl to the effect that a message from the dead renders it impossible for them to meet again. Thereupon his moroseness and hardness of nature return to him, and added to these, he seeks relief in drink, which brings back to him visions of that night in the library that he must never reveal. Elise secures a position in Thorne's office as stenographer. One day she hears an interview between Thorne and the old night watchman, in which Thorne tells him to do his worst, as his belief in Carlisle's innocence is of no consequence now. Thorne learns from Elise what she has heard, and invites her to his house in order to confer upon a compromise. It is arranged between Thorne and his old mother that the girl must be abducted to secure their own safety, but this plot is frustrated by Carl, who tells what he knows. Thorne commits suicide, and Carl promises to atone for the wrong his father has done, by the bestowal upon its innocent victim of his everlasting love and protection.
- Nell Rogers, wife of a wealthy broker, leaves him because of his affairs with other women, setting out one morning without his knowledge as he lies in a drunken stupor. She intends to visit relatives in a nearby city, but her auto is wrecked and a limb is broken. She is found by Mary Jenks, the poorly-clad girl-wife of a rough fisherman. With "Granny" Wilkes' aid, Mary carries Nell to her shack. She has just been in a case parallel to Nell's: her brute of a husband left in a rage to meet with his drinking pals. During the weeks of illness that Mary nurses the "lady from the city," a bond of sympathy springs up between the two women; Nell is grateful for the devotion bestowed upon her. As friendship ripens, the women exchange confidences. About this time a babe is born to Nell. One day Nell, from the cabin window, sees an auto containing her husband and some carefree women pass along the road and she realizes that her husband hasn't changed. The same day, Mary's husband shows up directing brutal threats at Mary. Then the bond of womanhood develops: each wife, unknown to the other, resolves to seek the offending husband and cause a reconciliation. Mary secretly sets out on foot to see Rogers. She reaches the mansion exhausted and finds him throwing a lawn party. Undaunted, she pursues Rogers amid the merrymaking and delivers her simple sermon despite the guests' derisive laughter. She describes Nell's mental and physical suffering so vehemently, and scores Rogers so unmercifully ,that he wilts under her volleys of indignation. Soon Mary has persuaded him to return to the forest hut and go back to Nell. Meanwhile, Nell has performed a similar mission by seeking out Jenks in a river hut. Although his drunken threats intimidate her at first she scores him so tellingly for his abuse of Mary that she conquers the brute in him and leaves him repentant. Humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed. Rogers sets out for the hut. Here he is reconciled with Nell over the cradle in which the tiny body of their infant rests. Nell pleads with the forest girl to return with them. Mary realizing her helplessness, is about to yield when Jenks appears in the doorway, ready to receive Mary's forgiveness. The city man and his wife leave with the baby. Jenks turns to Mary with the first show of tenderness he has ever exhibited and announces his intention to make amends.
- Patrick Curran and Dennis O'Day both love the handsome and vivacious Rose Grady, who is something of a flirt, and keeps her lovers in suspense. Father Curran, the priest, a brother of Patrick, looks earnestly after his flock which has in it several men who are bent on whiling away their time at the public house in drinking and games. Shamus McCarty is the village drunkard and causes the priest much concern to keep him sober. There is a love scene between Patrick and Rose and Dennis appears on the scene. The rivalry is bitter and hasty words are spoken. An encounter is imminent when Father Curran comes on the scene and acts as peace-maker. At his request the lovers shake hands and are once more friends. Proceeding on his way, Father Curran finds Shamus under the influence of tipple and he takes his bottle away and lectures him on the evils of the drink habit. The Father returns home, and, seated by the fire, lights his pipe and dozes. His sleep is disturbed by a horrid dream. Patrick and Dennis fight over the favors of Rose, and Dennis is thrown over a cliff. Patrick takes refuge in the house of his brother and when the excited villagers come for him the priest tells them he is not there and they go away. Shamus, the drunkard, believes Father Curran is telling a falsehood, and he returns and sees Patrick through the window. He conceives a plan to get even with the priest. He rushes to the crowd, tells them of his discovery and then sneaks to the house and sets it on fire. Father Curran awakes with a start, to find it all a dream. Patrick and Rose come in for his blessing and there is a comedy scene with Shamus. The priest is relieved but discovers that his pipe has set fire to a newspaper, the smoke having filled the room, probably suggesting the firing of the house by the tippler in his dream.
- As the Civil War starts, duty calls Captain Willis of the Northern army from his bride Louise, daughter of Confederate officer Col. Frear; at the same time, zealous Confederate Belle Daring breaks her engagement with Lieutenant Fisk of the Union troops, though he vows to regain her love at the war's end. One year later Belle has become a Confederate spy whose exploits are the scourge of the Northern forces. Captain Willis is assigned to a certain outpost and given the special commission of capturing Belle. His duties are so exacting that he has been unable to return home to see his wife and the little daughter who has been born to him. Belle falls into the hands of her lover, Lieutenant Fiske, but beguiles him into letting her go. Louise Willis determines to visit her husband with their baby, and writes him to meet her at Simpson's Corners. He is unable to obtain leave, but goes to the meeting under cover of night. He is delayed by the presence of Confederates, and reaches the Corners only to find that Louise has passed through in company with another woman, who, he rightly guesses is Belle Daring the spy. Louise has secured a pass through the Union lines, and depends upon her friendship with the Southern officers to obtain her passage through the Confederates. She and Belle are captured by Union soldiers, and Belle persuades her to take a paper which she carries and give the pass in exchange, since, as the wife of a Northern officer, she would easily escape search. Their captor, however, is the one Union officer who does not know Captain Willis, and is detained while Belle escapes with the baby. When searched Belle's paper is found on Louise, and she is taken for the Confederate spy. Returning from the meeting place, Willis is placed under arrest, accused of abandoning his post and of permitting Belle Darring to pass through. Louise and her husband are both sentenced to be shot. Belle, suffering a change of heart, uses Louise's pass to reach the Union general, and pleads for clemency for Louise if not for Willis. When the general refuses, Belle promises to deliver to him the famous woman spy if he will delay the execution until it can be referred to the authorities at Washington. The general agrees, and at the place of execution, Louise, Willis and the baby are united. Then Belle turns to General Slogan with: "I am Belle Daring, General, and your prisoner."
- To disprove the contention made by the social reformer, Roger Latham, that hundreds of girls are lost in the cities every year, the editor of the Star, which has ridiculed Latham, sends Violet Dare, a reporter, to make an investigation. Violet comes into the city disguised as a country girl, and shortly afterward meets Latham, who is conducting his work under an assumed name. She distrusts him because of his polished manners among the rougher element, and disregards his attempts to warn her of danger. On the other hand, she is attracted in a strange way to Bill Hanlon, notorious in the underworld, who, on his part, feels for the girl, the first decent emotion which has ever entered his heart. He determines that she shall come to no harm. Violet is captured by a gang of crooks and is confined in a tenement attic. Both Hanlon and Latham learn of this and start to rescue her. They meet on the roof, and in their common interest, lay aside their own bitter enmity. They soon find that they can reach the girl only by way of the window, and as a last desperate measure, Latham is swung head-down from the roof by Hanlon, who manages to draw Violet to safety. The escape is discovered, however and the captors cut off access to the stairway from the roof. The ammunition in the revolvers of Latham and Hanlon is soon exhausted, and as the gangsters rush up the stairs, the three make a desperate attempt to reach another roof, crossing on the telegraph wires. Some of the crooks follow, but when the other roof is reached in safety, Latham cuts the wires and the pursuers plunge to death below. Latham and Hanlon manage to reach the river with Violet, but on the wharf, Hanlon sinks down, disclosing for the first time that he is wounded. It is impossible for Latham to save both Hanlon and Violet. The thugs reach the wharf and are getting into a boat when Hanlon, with his remaining strength, holds them at bay with a piece of timber until he is shot down. The arrival of the police results in the capture of the gangsters. Violet succeeds in reaching her home, under Latham's protection, and though nearly exhausted, spends the remainder of the night in writing her wonderful story for the paper. When she hands in her "copy" the next day, she is met with a curt statement from the editor that he wanted a true story and not a faked one. When Violet protests that it is all true, he says that no one would believe it if it were published. Violet remains home in tears over her disappointment, but when Latham comes to her, disclosing his true identity, she finds happiness in the awakening love between them.
- Jean Sherwood, a college girl, arriving at her room, receives word to come home. Her mother is dying, and after a kiss and a promise to keep the children together, Jean, her little brother and sister are left orphans. With the advice of Dr. Grey, Jean determines to leave college and keep the home. She finds little time to attend receptions, but decides to accept an invitation sent her for a ball. On the night of the ball the nurse tells her that Tommy is ill and wants her. She goes to the nursery. The boy pleads with her to remain, which she does. Dr. Grey, the physician, has an invitation to the dance and is telling his young friend. Dr. Gardiner, that he should meet Jean. Dr. Gardiner is interested and goes to the ball, but is disappointed at not finding Jean there. Next day Tommy's condition is much worse. Jean 'phones Dr. Grey, but Dr. Gardiner gets the message and goes in Dr. Grey's place. He and Jean work with Tommy until the crisis is over. On his return home Dr. Gardiner tells Dr. Grey of his infatuation for Jean and finally tells Jean and promises to help her take care of the children and is accepted.
- Alan Baird, younger son of Army paymaster-general Jason Baird, is engaged to Muriel Phillips. Alan, a famous portrait painter, gladly agrees to paint the picture of famous actress Laura Carew. Alan becomes infatuated with Laura, who desires to make a conquest of every prominent young man she meets. This arouses the jealousy of her leading man Guy Manners, who seeks revenge and financial gain by luring Alan into many card games. The young man soon loses his friends' respect, and after wasting his own money and all he can obtain from his parents, his father gives him up as hopeless and throws him on his own resources. Guy Manners, in the furtherance of his scheme, has Alan put up at his club. Alan's brother David, an Army paymaster, returns from a distant point to obtain funds for his district, and Muriel confides in him about her sorrow. David seeks Alan and finds him with the actress. He upbraids him for his conduct, and indignant Laura plans to add David also to her list of victims. But Laura finds herself entrapped. She sees in David the first man whom she can really love, and David discovers Laura to be his ideal of womanly beauty. Laura sees that David really cares for her, and viewing her own life for the first time through his eyes, she admits to herself that he is the stronger, and that she cannot sacrifice him. She determines to help him in his efforts to save Alan. In a flashy café she acts the part of a wicked and degenerate woman. Her purpose fails. Though David suffers acutely at her shamelessness, Alan is more than ever determined to win her. Indignant at his brother's interference he turns to Guy Manners. Alan is sorely in need of funds and at Guy's suggestion, he enters his father's home and steals from the safe the government funds which David has placed there. He returns to the club, where he enters a game of cards with Guy. The next morning he finds himself again penniless, discarded by Laura, an outcast, and a thief. Sobered at last, he determines to take his life, and goes to his old studio for that purpose. Meanwhile, David has discovered the theft of the money, and guessing the truth, goes to Laura in search of Alan. There, the actress breaking down, confesses her love for David. In the midst of the scene Guy enters, and David quickly conceals himself. Guy pleads that Laura go with him, confessing that he has induced Alan to rob the safe, and has won the money from him. David plunges upon Guy and in a sharp fight, recovers the money. Then he and Laura start in search of Alan. Meanwhile, Muriel has followed Alan to his studio and finds him just about to take his life. She is pleading with him when his father enters, having discovered the robbery, and demands that Alan clear his name by carrying out his suicide. At this point David and Laura burst into the studio. Seeing the situation, David calmly tells the General that it was he who took the money from the safe, that he and Laura are to be married at once, and that he removed the money because they are starting immediately for his post in the West. Alan is reinstated in his father's heart, and finds ready forgiveness from Muriel. David and Laura start upon a life of happiness together.
- The lives of a young inventor and his sweetheart are saved by the use of his revolutionary new invention, a wireless telephone.
- Rose Carson, a spirited young woman, has never had a chance to live an honorable life. Reared in a family of thieves, she has become a big card among the light-fingered gentry, glorying in her skill as a thief of international reputation and priding in her title, "The Queen of Diamonds." Rose has never known love. Her nemesis proves to be Larry Moran, a young Central Office detective, working under Chief McCall, who has taken a fatherly interest in the young sleuth's advancement. Larry has seen Rose on her first appearance in the city, and not knowing her record, has fallen under the spell of her charms. Even after he has been told of her identity by the Chief he still cannot resist her fascination. The Chief one day sees him looking fondly at Rosie's photograph in the Rogues' Gallery. He resolves to put the boy to the test. Rose, visiting a fence run by Spanish Ed, is tipped off to a job by that worthy, who is one of her many admirers. She readily accepts the tip, but repulses his advances. Ed resolves on revenge and manages to get information to Police Headquarters that Rose is to crack a safe that night at a wealthy uptown residence. At headquarters the Chief assigns Larry to make the "pinch" alone. Larry resolves to put his duty as an officer before all else and conceals himself that night in the marked house. Rose, unsuspecting, walks into the trap. After a strenuous struggle, Larry succeeds in shackling Rose's wrist to his own with handcuffs. Rose resorts to woman's most compelling weapon, tears. Swayed by his secret love for her, Larry yields to her pleadings to be released from the humiliating cuffs. As he unfastens the cuff from his arm, however, Rose, her criminal instincts predominating, deals him a vicious blow on the head with the loosened bracelet and he sinks unconscious to the floor. Rose then attempts to find the key to the cuffs, but in so doing she comes upon the evidence of Ed's betrayal and also proof that the young detective himself loves her. At this moment the Chief, who has just rounded up Ed and his gang in a raid, comes to the marked house to verify his suspicions. Rose hides and the Chief finds Larry alone, the loot and the lady missing. When Larry comes to, he is given a brow beating by his superior officer that leaves nothing for him to do but to resign from the service. But as the Chief turns momentarily away Rose, who now realizes that an honest man really loves her, comes from her hiding place, and quickly snapping the handcuff back on Larry's wrist, returns the loot. As the Chief returns he finds that after all the young officer has made the "pinch." Sometime later, after Rose has served her sentence, and accepted Larry's love, it is conclusively proved to the Chief that the reformation of the once notorious "Queen of Diamonds" is a fact. We leave the lovers receiving the Chief's blessing as he tears the picture of Rose that once hung in the Rogues' Gallery.
- Allan Roberts is in sad straits financially and Maurice Anderson endeavors to assist him. Grace Roebrts is the idol of her father, who insists on seeing her happily married. Adjoining the Roberts' estate resides John Williams and his son, Raymond. Roberts discusses financial affairs with Anderson. Williams is wealthy and he writes his neighbor a very flattering offer for his property. Anderson, who is rich, sees a way out of the difficulty by marrying Grace and restoring the fortunes of the family. This meets with the approval of Roberts and the pact is made. In the meanwhile, Raymond Williams has strolled into the grounds of Roberts and meets Grace. Raymond comes to look over the property and is immediately interested in Grace. Roberts and Anderson appear and Raymond is ordered off the premises. He does so, and they meet clandestinely. They plan for future meetings. Raymond proposes to Grace that they agree on a signal to aid them in meeting at the trysting place. He whistles through his fingers a shrill note and she is delighted. Raymond is entrusted to deliver some important papers out of town. He meets Grace. He tells her of his journey and of the train on which he will leave. He has dallied too long with the girl, missing the train. Grace is summoned before her father who is reading a newspaper and she looks over his shoulder and reads the headlines, detailing an account of a railroad wreck in which every passenger was killed. It is the train on which her lover was to leave. She falls prostrate on the floor. Physicians are summoned. They fail to restore her and she lies in a stupor. Raymond enters the room and there finds Roberts and Anderson bending over the bedside of Grace. Raymond is obsessed by an idea. Calling the father and friend from the room, he explains his plan. Mr. Roberts consents. Grace is left alone and Raymond, going to an adjoining room gives the whistle. As the first shrill notes echo through the room, the girl hears and she partially realizes. The men go to the room expectantly and peer through the door. The experiment has failed. Raymond, excitedly whistles again and the call of love has its effect. The girl rises, her reason clears and she realizes that it is her lover summoning her. The men return to the room to find her in possession of her reasoning faculties. Raymond takes the girl in his arms. The father is overjoyed and invites his friends to join him in a hospitable glass. All objections as to their marriage being removed Raymond and Grace are happy in their unrestricted love.
- While his daughter Pauline attends school in France, Emil Cheraud establishes a fashionable gambling-house in New York. Upon her return, Pauline begs her father to close the establishment, and he promises to do so that very night at midnight, but when she enters his library shortly after the appointed hour, she finds him dead. Determined to bring the murderer to justice, Pauline assumes control of the gambling-house, hoping to trap the criminal into a confession. Three men are suspected, all of them in love with Pauline: one who owed her father a fortune; another who boasted that he would kill a man to win her affections; and a third, Jimmie Dreen, whose coat button was found at the scene of the crime. The evidence points strongly to Jimmie, with whom Pauline is in love, until Pierre, Emil's servant, confesses that he killed his employer upon learning that he had lost his job. Much relieved, Pauline agrees to marry Jimmie.
- A wife tries to help her erring brother without letting her husband into the secret.
- Engineer's daughter Mabel Green is in love with the superintendent's son Harry. Worried over finances and the fear of losing his home, the engineer takes several drinks on his way to work, leaving the saloon a bit unsteadily. He argues with his foreman, who fears to take the engine out. The superintendent overhears their dispute and discharges the engineer. A fight ensues, in which a policeman is badly injured. The engineer is tried and is sent up for a long term. Harry, meanwhile, has done his utmost to influence his father on the engineer's behalf, but the superintendent orders him to mind his own business. When Harry begs his father to save Mabel's home, the superintendent, sick of the whole affair, threatens to cast his son off if he sees Mabel again. Harry promptly marries her. His mother would take Mabel to her heart, but the superintendent sternly forbids it. Harry gets a position as towerman, Harry and Mabel welcome a baby daughter, and they are very happy. The superintendent suffers remorse, but refuses to relent. His wife secretly visits the little family and one day is followed by her husband. There a reconciliation is effected and the superintendent hurries off to the tower to tell his son. Meanwhile, the engineer has been released, and swears vengeance. He reads of a special trip the superintendent is to make over the road and finds he just has time to carry out a scheme of destruction. The superintendent takes Harry's wife and daughter with him on the trip. A siding on a hill switches down by Harry's tower onto the main track, and the engineer plans to send the empty freights on the special's track to meet and wreck it. He binds and gags Harry in the tower and throws the switch. When the engineer realizes who the tower man is he takes fiendish delight in explaining what is to happen. Harry tries to tell him of his secret marriage and that his daughter and granddaughter are on the train, but he cannot get the gag off. The engineer leaves, releases the cars and rides down on them. At the main track he jumps off. Harry has managed to get the gag loose and to silence his shouting the engineer rushes up in the tower. Harry compels him to listen and the man realizes what he has done. They rush from the tower and stop an automobile. A race begins between the motorcar and the freight cars. They get to the siding in the nick of time and throw the switch. The last freight car just passes the front of the engine and the special comes to a stop. The men and Mabel crowd from the car and Harry is made a hero. The engineer holds back, brokenhearted, until Harry draws him forward and the reconciliation is made complete.
- James Rice and John Strong are partners in the firm of Rice & Strong, mining engineers. Rice is gentle and generous except in business where he never allows sentiment to become a part of it. He is a widower with an only son whom he maintains in a sumptuous home so that he may be well provided for when Nell Strong shall have become his wife. Plans, however, become disarranged by the winning of Rice's heart by Laska Ayon, a wealthy Brazilian visiting the United States with her father. She eventually becomes engaged to Rice. Strong is the direct antithesis of Rice, both in morals and business, and has often been unscrupulous and cunning enough to conceal his shortcomings from Rice. Although a married man, he maintains an Oriental studio which it pleases him to call Bohemia. Excesses and bad speculation place him on the verge of bankruptcy. He requests a large loan from his partner, but Rice tells him he must secure the money elsewhere. The partnership agreement specifies that when one of them dies, the surviving partner shall be repaid from the estate of the deceased the amount of capital invested by him in the firm. His many failures to secure the loan of $500,000 induce the thought of doing away with his more business-like partner and so secure the money he so sorely needs. Strong appeals to the wealthy Laska and her father, and they express willingness to loan the money if Rice will endorse. Rice, however, refuses to guarantee payment, and Strong becomes more bitter than ever. There is only one way left, which is the death of his partner, and he carefully studies out a way that will defy detection. A letter which Rice has written to Strong furnishes the cue, which reads: "My dear John: Things cannot go on as they are. I cannot stand it any longer and mean to put an end to it for all time. You must straighten up and attend to our business or I will sue for a dissolution of partnership. Jim." The part of the letter which speaks of putting an end of it for all time will furnish grounds for the belief that he has done away with himself. Rice has an inordinate liking for sweets and has a box of candy on his desk at all times. On the evening when there is to be a double wedding between Rice and Laska and Tom and Nell Strong, the plot is carried into fatal effect. Strong purchases a box of bon bons. This he takes to a druggist, who is known to sell drugs to unfortunates, and who for a tempting bribe poisons the candy. This is sent to Rice's address and before the wedding ceremony can be concluded, Rice falls to the floor dead. In the meantime Strong has prepared his proof of suicide by cutting away the top and bottom of the letter leaving the words, "Things cannot go on as they are. I cannot stand it any longer and therefore mean to put an end to it for all time." The verdict of suicide was duly accepted by everybody except Laska, and Strong's attempt to borrow money aroused her suspicions. She visits the detective department and offers a reward of $100,000 for the arrest of the murderer, but could interest only one man named Whitaker, who does not agree with the suicide theory, and they join forces. The druggist reading the report, visits Strong and attempts to extort money. Whitaker on the watch follows him and discovers the long suspected dope store. Strong, feeling himself unsafe, visits the drug store and shoots the druggist. He, however, does not die immediately and with a piece of charcoal writes upon the wall the words, "John Strong murdered Rice and me." Shortly after Whitaker enters the drug store and, finding the man dead, reads the lines on the wall. He then persuades Laska to make friends with Strong, which she does, and one night at one of his orgies he proposes to make her his favorite, to which she replies, "Are you quite sure that you will not send me poisoned candy whenever you grow jealous?" Strong demands why she makes the remark, and Laska replies, "Because 1 believe you murdered James Rice." Strong becomes paralyzed with fear, and Laska calls upon Whitaker to arrest him. He escapes in an automobile, Whitaker close behind. In the chase Strong attempts to cross a railroad track, an express train hurls the machine up in the air, and retributive justice comes to the murderer through the hand of fate.
- Ethel Edgar is a wild rose of the peaks, whose only associates are rough, honest miners. Her father and brother refuse her permission to accompany them on a prospecting trip, giving as an excuse that she is a girl and cannot withstand the hardships. She is peeved and decides to go gold hunting on her own hook. Procuring a mirror and a pair of shears, she clips off her tresses, dons male attire, and with revolver and pick sallies forth in search of adventures. One comes most inopportunely, for she falls over a cliff and rolls to the rocks below, stunned and amazed. She is rescued by Wayne Holland, a young miner, who lives alone in a cabin on the mountain. He carries her to his home, where she revives. Holland, while not conversant with the ways of women, has an intuition that his newly made friend is masquerading. The girl tries to bide her identity, but makes it all the more apparent that she is not what she seems. Leaving her in the cabin, Holland sleeps in the open and an unsuccessful miner tries to rob him, entering the cabin. The girl screams and Holland is awakened. There is a fight and the thief sent crashing down the mountainside. Ethel leaves the cabin and goes home, where she dons suitable wearing apparel. Holland, left alone, cannot forget the sweet face and resolves to seek her. After much primping he dresses in his best suit of clothes and goes to her home, where he discovers her in proper personae, and is smitten by her charms. He endeavors to make love to her, but she will have none of him in his make-up assumed for the occasion. He returns to his home crestfallen as the result of his courting expedition. Ethel follows him, anxious to make amends for her seeming coldness. There is a pretty scene in his cabin of the happy lovers.
- When Jennie Malone is accused of forgery, her father Black Jerry, the proprietor of an underworld dive, realizes that his daughter deserves a better living environment. With the aid of her Uncle George, he arranges for Jennie to attend boarding school under an assumed name. Once there, Jennie falls in love with Kenneth Harrison, her roommate's brother. Kenneth's father has an unscrupulous business partner named Sam Conway, who kills a man and frames Harry Edwards, an old friend of Jennie's, for the murder. To save Edwards from the electric chair, Jennie is faced with the quandary of testifying in his behalf and thus revealing her past, or remaining silent and sealing his death. Jennie chooses the former, but Kenneth forgives her and all ends happily.
- Brothers John and Walter Lattimer are both in love with Alice Scott. John steals money from a miser named Jenkins to buy a Bible for Alice. When John is accused, he gives Jenkins a note for the money, to be paid off in one month. On the day payment is due, John finds that he has lost his wallet. Jenkins does not believe him, and John is sent to jail. John then urges his brother to marry Alice. Over time, Walter proves to be a bad husband and deserts Alice. Alice manages to get a small file to John, who escapes from jail. When a posse is formed, Walter joins in and finds his brother. The Sheriff hands Walter a $50 reward. John pleads with Walter to go back to Alice and start a new life, which he agrees to do.
- Daniel Storm, a millionaire diamond collector, purchases a famous gem. Dick Turner, a crook, reads of the purchase in the papers, and with his pal, Bob, plans a robbery. Turner visits Storm with a forged letter of introduction, and is welcomed by the millionaire because of his knowledge of diamonds. He is asked to stay at the mansion as a guest. Turner meets and is strongly attracted to Helen, Storm's daughter, who is in love with Frank Lewis, a private detective in Storm's employ, who occupies a front room in the house. Frank suspects Turner, but Storm refuses to take warning. Turner plans to rob the safe and throw suspicion on Frank. He has obtained a print from Frank's thumb, and having once been a counterfeiter, engraves a plaster duplicate. He phones Bob to be outside the library window to receive the jewels, but in the midst of the robbery Frank surprises Turner and covers him with a revolver. Bob steals through the window and overcomes Frank. He and Turner carry Frank to a vacant house nearby, where the detective is tied up and Turner returns to the library. He impresses the print of the plaster thumb on the diamond tray and leaves the contents of the safe in disorder. Then he returns to his room. Next morning the robbery is discovered and, by means of the print, Turner directs suspicion upon Frank. From the window of the vacant house Frank can see the porch of Storm's house and also Helen's window. Turner proposes to Helen on the porch, but she refuses. Her father favors his suit. Later, when Turner is pressing his attentions upon Helen, he drops the plaster thumb. Helen finds it. and realizes the truth. Turner discovers his loss, and returns to find Helen with it. He attempts to take it from her, but she escapes with it to her room. Turner breaks in the door. Frank sees their struggle from the window of the vacant house. He manages to free himself, and drops from the window. Storm, who has heard Helen's screams, comes into the room and grapples with Turner. The crook manages to throw him off, and escapes by the window just as Frank climbs to the porch roof. They struggle at the edge until Helen, coming to his assistance, strikes Turner with a flower pot. He releases Frank and topples from the roof to the ground. Helen, Frank and Storm descend and find Turner dead. Bob is captured with the stolen gems, and Storm bestows his blessings upon Frank and Helen.
- Gertrude Edgar is loved by Tom Moreland and Owen Jackson, and Gertrude, being a woman, is inclined to a mild flirtation with Jackson, while loving Moreland devotedly. Moreland is invited to join a party to discover the headwaters of the Amazon River. Jackson steals a photograph of Gertrude. He takes particular pain that Moreland shall see the photograph and the latter becomes foolishly jealous. Moreland is captured by savages while a member of an expedition into a wild country inhabited by uncivilized savages. He is the sole survivor of the expedition. The scene shifts to Jackson, who is reading a paper in which there is an account of the massacre of the members of the Amazon expedition. Through an erroneous report it is stated that every man has been killed. Gertrude reads the account also and her grief is pitiful. She wanders down to the old gate where she was wont to meet her lover, and fixing her eyes steadily on space, sees Tom alive in the wilds. Jackson is filled with remorse at his perfidy. He knows he can never marry Gertrude. Gertrude tells him that Tom is alive and will consent to marry him if he will bring back her sweetheart in safety. Jackson starts on what he regards as a fruitless attempt. Arriving in the wilds, he organizes a searching party and is rewarded by finding Tom alive. Jackson is overjoyed to find his friend and brings him back to Gertrude, who is aroused from her melancholia and welcomes him in an endearing fashion. Gertrude, in her paroxysm of joy, had forgotten her promise to Jackson, who stands near. Suddenly she remembers and sorrowfully tells her returned lover that she cannot marry him as she has plighted her troth to Jackson on a condition. Then Jackson shows his true character. He places the hand of Gertrude in that of Tom and walks away.
- Henry Grayson, a bank teller, and Briggs, an artist, are both in love with Julia Mills, a society girl. Julia eventually marries Briggs and they go to Europe. Henry, having a longing for a child, adopts Frances, an orphan of nine years. Later Henry becomes president of the bank and finds complete happiness with Frances, who has reached the age of eighteen, and visualizes her as the possible mother of his child. He, however, through timidity of nature, delays a proposal. Frances, during frequent week-ends at the home of her friend, Jean Hardy, falls in love with Jean's brother Ed. At a dance Ed receives news that through his uncle's will, he is to take charge of the latter's factory at Chicago, the town in which Frances lives. He immediately proposes and the girl accepts him, but refuses to marry him until he has made good in the management of the business left him. For the time being they agree to say nothing of their tentative engagement. In the meantime, Henry has gone secretly ahead with plans for a little cottage on an estate known as Rainbow Hill, resolving to propose to Frances when it is finished. Affairs go badly with Ed. The workmen are dissatisfied, creditors begin to press their claims and reports of bankruptcy creep into circulation. Ed can see his way clear with a loan from the bank, and Frances decides to ask the favor of Henry. He has just come from Rainbow Hill. The cottage is completed, and it is now time to propose. He enters the room and finds Frances. Slowly at first he explains how long he has sought the happiness of wedlock and fatherhood and his great love for her. Half-stunned, she tells him of her promise to marry Ed Hardy, and of her intention to ask for the loan that will save him from bankruptcy. Henry is astounded. Frances exits upstairs, miserable. Confronted by the sight of Ed's photo on the table, all of the bitterness in Henry's nature surges to the surface. In his anger the opportunity to deny Ed assistance seems like a god-send. Next morning Ed, hard-pressed by creditors, comes to Henry for assistance. Frances is to wed his rival on condition that he is not a failure. He refuses flatly to make the loan, but the appealing face of Frances appears before him. Is he to destroy the happiness of two people and financially ruin one of them? He calls Ed back and makes the loan. Next day Henry takes home a photograph of the little house on Rainbow Hill and tells the newly engaged couple that it is to be his wedding present. Not twenty-four hours after, Henry receives a caller at the bank in the person of Julia. Her husband died in Europe and she has returned to America to place her bank account with Henry. Their tales of the past unfold the great desire of their future, and soon there is a double wedding at the little church.
- Wealthy scientist Professor Fain's secretary Richard Dare falls in love with Dorothy Blake, Fain's ward, but Fain wants her to marry his nephew Morris Fain. Dorothy is not indifferent to Richard, but cares nothing for Morris. Richard is about to propose when he learns that the professor has planned to make Dorothy and Morris his heirs if they marry. Richard decides that he cannot ask Dorothy to forego the luxury of wealth, and refrains from speaking. Morris, who has been leading a wild life, visits his uncle at night and asks for funds. The amount which he receives is not a drop in the bucket of his debts, and leaving, he stops outside the door. The professor leaves the room, and Morris returns and takes more money. The old man detects him in the act, and in a struggle, the professor is knocked unconscious. Morris flees and conceals himself to avoid Richard, who is coming. Richard enters the study and finds the professor on the floor. Dorothy appears, and finding Richard and the scientist, she screams. Morris rushes in and accuses Richard. The professor recovers but is paralyzed, unable to speak or move. Richard is sentenced to prison, and when Dorothy learns from a paper which Morris finds that her uncle wanted them to marry, she agrees to marry Morris. The doctor finds that the professor has made some improvement, but does not tell Morris for fear of raising false hope of the professor's recovery. He does tell Morris that the old man must be kept quiet and that a shock could kill him. The wedding day approaches, and Morris, believing that the shock of seeing the ceremony might cause his uncle's death and thus remove all danger of detection, has the old man placed where he can see the wedding. During the ceremony, the old man struggles to regain the power of speech, and succeeds just in time to prevent the completion of the ceremony. The professor's denunciation of Morris results in the latter's conviction and Richard's release, and the old scientist bestows his blessing upon his secretary and his ward.
- Clarence Kelly, a young business man, arrives home one night with a terrible jag on. His wife scolds him severely and Clarence leaves in a huff and resolves to go to a Turkish bath to spend the night. He gathers a bunch of his chums and they all agree to the proposition and figure out a good time. During the night Kelly's office building is burned down and Mollie, reading of the fire in the morning paper, hurries to the scene, where she hears that Clarence has probably perished. Her agony is awful and returning home, she immediately proceeds to adopt mourning. She drapes her beloved husband's picture with black ribbon, and digging out all the black articles of dress she can And, proceeds to make herself up as near like a widow as possible. Clarence, having spent a glorious night with his friends at the bath, pulls himself together and goes home to make up with wifey. The evidence of mourning startles him, and when Mollie sees him enter she thinks that it is a ghost. Explanations follow and the cloud of mourning passes away and gives place to the sunshine of a happy future, as Clarence resolves "Never again."
- Tom Clark, the part owner of a luckless gas station in New York, returns to his place of birth for Old Home Week, posing as the millionaire president of the Amalgamated Oil Co. He is chosen as the orator for the homecoming banquet and given complete financial control over an oil well drilled in the town by Coleman and Barton, a pair of oily swindlers. Tom discovers that the well is a fake and has it connected secretly with the local reservoir. A wire from Tom's partner is intercepted, and Tom is exposed as a fraud. Coleman and Barton are about to leave town when Tom fakes a gusher and quickly sells the well back to the swindlers at a profit. The swindlers realize that they have been outsmarted, and their anger convinces the townspeople that Tom has acted in the best interests of the community. Tom is again the toast of the town, feted by its inhabitants and rewarded with the kisses of his sweetheart.
- Dunn Brown's "nights out" have brought worry to his family. Among his visitors is Smith, a suitor for his sister Gwendolyn's hand, and between them has sprung up a dislike because of Smith's claims that the professional detectives never discover anything, while if he had the opportunity he could sleuth out the most mysterious crime. Brown is at his club, "under the weather," while his family is packing to leave for the country, and Smith is sent to look for him. He arrives at the club and induces Brown to go home. Being unable to find his overcoat, Brown is furnished with a very gaudy one, belonging to a member of the club. On his way home he encounters a tramp about to be arrested and releases him from the officer, promising to provide him with a bed and breakfast. This scene occurs at a coal yard, which the police are clearing of tramps, and his flashy overcoat becomes much soiled. Arriving home with his new friend, his wife refuses to let him into his bedroom, so he goes to sleep on the parlor floor. In the early morning he awakens with no memory of the events of the night before, and notes with alarm the sleeping tramp on the floor, whom he finds it impossible to wake up. The morning paper arrives, telling of a murder in a coal yard, the suspected murderer being some individual in a flashy plaid overcoat. In his disordered mind he pictures himself as the murderer, and the tramp on the floor as the victim, for here is a flashy overcoat as evidence. Seeing that he must act quickly, he takes from the largest truck the apparel with which it has been packed and hurries the sleeping tramp into it. He is discovered by Susan, the maid, whom he bribes to keep his secret. By this time Smith arrives to bid his fiancée farewell. He, too, reads of the coal yard murder and nominates himself as the detective to hunt it out. During breakfast the tramp awakens, creeps out of the trunk, hurries into the street and is arrested. Finding the empty trunk opened, the family hurries the apparel back into it, and when the baggagemen arrive it is sent with the other baggage, and Brown in terror keeps his eye upon it from the taxicab behind. The club member arrives in search of his overcoat. Smith, who has already seen the overcoat, and suspected Brown of the crime, turns his suspicions upon the club member, whom he arrests. The inspector detains the club member, and Smith sets out in pursuit of other evidence. He encounters Susan, puts her under a third degree, gets from her what she knows about the trunk affair, and starts off in pursuit of Brown, after placing Susan, too, in jail. Meanwhile, the Browns have started for the country, where Brown has many adventures in attempting to conceal the trunk. In these adventures he is pursued by the indefatigable Smith, who finally arrests him and takes him and the trunk to the police station in the city. Here it is discovered that there has not been any murder at all, that the account was a hoax, perpetrated by an enterprising club reporter. Smith's prisoners are released; the club member thrashes him for his unwarranted arrest.
- Sweethearts Harry and Mabel have retired to the seclusion of the conservatory, where Harry tries to make love to Mabel. Mabel thinks that Harry is a bit too sure of her, so she starts to tease him and make him jealous. Frank enters and she makes a fool of him by coquetting, taking great glee in Harry's rising jealousy and anger. She goes off with Frank for the dance that Harry wanted and upon her return promises Frank more dances, which annoys Harry. After Frank leaves, a quarrel between Harry and Mabel ensues, and Harry, angered beyond endurance, strides out of the room. Mabel is sorry, but won't go after him. Harry goes to the smoking room and sulks. An elderly friend of Mabel's enters and schemes to win Harry back. He goes to Harry and makes him unburden himself and then asks him to listen to the story of his blighted life. Harry is surprised, but listens and the man tells him an imaginary tale of a quarrel with his sweetheart and how the other man took advantage of the quarrel and eloped with his sweetheart. When he cooled down and went back to her he found them just returned from the minister's--married. As that scene fades back into the smoking-room, Harry shows his great anxiety and nervousness. He is afraid that Frank may be doing the same thing in his absence and cannot get away from the laughing old man quick enough. He enters the conservatory just as Frank is claiming the next dance. Taking no chances, he grabs Mabel and rushes her out onto the dance floor, much to her surprise and Frank's chagrin. She likes Harry's masterful way. He hurries her into the conservatory and tells her she will marry him. It takes her breath away, but she agrees and waves her tanks to the old man as he smiles at them through the doorway.
- Drunkard Peter Delany's wife Fannie could very well die of consumption unless Peter can send her away; the doctor tells him there is no alternative. Peter takes their last money and goes to the village to get the prescription filled, but while there he falls into his old temptation and spends the money on drink instead of securing the prescription. Neighborhood bully Del Phelan picks on Peter and knocks him down; Peter vows to get even. Passing through the woods later, Phelan encounters two drunken toughs and the result of their argument is a death shot for Phelan. Peter hears the shot and finds Phelan dead and his assailants gone. Mechanically he picks up the gun and without thinking he pockets it. Then he remembers the prescription, takes enough from the dead Phelan to buy it, and nervously slinks away. The body is found later and the sheriff notified, but Peter has gotten home with the medicine--and the gun, which he frantically hides when he discovers it. A deputy sheriff goes to look over the ground. Peter drawn by curiosity also goes to the village and discovers a placard offering $500 reward for information that will lead to the murderer's arrest. Peter thinks of his wife: free of him she might be able to do some good in the world. What would his life matter if she had $500 and could get well? He enters the office and gets the sheriff to sign a paper guaranteeing that his wife would receive the reward if he gave the information the sheriff wanted. When the paper is signed he confesses that he committed the murder; they laugh at him. He pleads with them, reminds them of the argument in the saloon and tells them where to find the gun. A man goes for it. Upon his return the sheriff finds him guilty. Meanwhile the deputy has followed what clues he could find and discovers nothing until to assuage his thirst be enters another saloon and there overhears the drunken men whispering about their crime and he takes them to the sheriff's office. The sheriff and others are on their way, however, with Peter. The deputy arrives at the office and learning of Peter places his prisoners under guard and dashes off to intercept the hanging. He arrives in time and under the third degree of the sheriff. Peter breaks down and tells the truth. Gone now is his one big chance to save his wife and brokenhearted he gives way to his grief. The men, however, are quick to recognize true heroism and chip in the amount needed, and Peter goes home to Fannie, and the promise of a better future looms up before them.
- Raymond Longstreth, a successful artist, has painted a Madonna, using his wife, Helen, as a subject. Raymond is jealous of Harold Winters, an art dealer, the former rival for Helen's hand. When an accident brings Helen and Harold together, and Raymond discovers them, he bursts forth in a tirade against his wife. His jealousy is further aroused when, after the exhibition of the finished picture, it is sold by the art gallery to Harold. Harold, however, has only bought the picture as an agent for Clayton Burroughs, a wealthy collector. Even the birth of a baby does not lessen the husband's jealousy, and when, soon after he finds Helen and Harold together, under absolutely innocent circumstances, he drives his wife from him. Then Raymond, tormented by doubts, resorts to drink. Years afterward, Helen, under the name of "Mrs. Raymond," is a housekeeper to Dr. Marriott, and her daughter, Naomi, is like a daughter to the doctor. Raymond has given up his art, and is a mere wanderer. Sterling Burroughs, the son of the art collector, is the cause of an automobile accident in which Naomi is injured. In his solicitude for her welfare after the accident, he soon finds himself in love with her, and she returns his affection. In the girl the elder Burroughs recognizes the face of his treasured picture, the Madonna. When fire destroys the picture, he has search instituted for the missing artist, hoping to have him paint a duplicate. Harold succeeds in finding Raymond, but the latter says that it would be impossible to paint another Madonna, since the original model was his lost wife. Burroughs promises to obtain a model, thinking of his son's fiancée. When Sterling Burroughs asks Naomi to sit for a painting by the artist, Raymond Longstreth, she is overcome by emotion, and discloses to him that she is really Naomi Longstreth, the artist's daughter. At first she refuses to pose, but then, struck by a sudden hope, she consents. At the sitting Raymond is dazed by the resemblance of the girl to his wife, but does not guess that she is his daughter. While he is deep in reverie, Naomi steals from the studio, and Helen, the wife, takes her place. When Raymond turns once more to his subject he is met by the forgiving Helen. Life begins anew for them and in the happiness of Naomi and Sterling,
- John Prescott by speculations with Stephen Jepson of the Bank of Omaha, has brought the bank on the verge of bankruptcy. Ed Harrison, secretary to Prescott and engaged to his daughter, discovers the discrepancies and calls attentions to them. Harrison and Natalie get married when it is discovered that he is deeply in debt on account of gambling. The bank examiners are about to visit the bank, and Jepson takes the money left in the bank, goes west and starts a department store. Prescott goes home and is met by his daughter and son-in-law, who ask him to pay the gambler's debts. A quarrel ensues and the struggle is interrupted by Natalie who separates them and takes Ed to his room. After Prescott has retired Natalie asks tor a book, and Ed goes to the library for it. At the same time a burglar is seen entering Prescott's bedroom. Ed, in the library, is startled by a shot and getting to Prescott's room, finds the banker dead on the floor, but does not see the burglar escaping. Natalie enters as Ed is kneeling on the floor with the pistol in his hand, and remembering the recent quarrel between him and her father, believes that he committed the murder. Ed is accused of the crime, tried and is sentenced for life. On the way to prison he escapes, jumps from a trestle into a river, and is reported dead. Three years elapse. Ed secures a position as bookkeeper in Jepson's store, and Natalie, wishing to clear his name and that of her father, seeks employment as a detective. Her application is considered favorable. Jepson, discovering that his store is bankrupt, resolves to go to Omaha, secure more insurance, and sets fire to it. At the same time the insurance company reports to the detective department that there have been several incendiary fires which they desire to trace and request the sending of some detective, a woman preferred. The detail is given to Natalie, and she is sent for a conference with the insurance company. While there Jepson makes application for another policy, and advised by Natalie, who recognizes him, He receives it and hurries back, followed by Natalie. On the day of her arrival the store is fired, and Ed, whose existence she has not heard of for three years, is asphyxiated, but rescued by firemen. Natalie takes her husband to a hospital, secures the services of an officer and sets out to arrest Jepson. They enter his house on the pretense of being insurance adjusters, but an inadvertent question from Natalie warns him of danger and he rushes out of the house locking the door behind him. Natalie and the officer jump from a window in pursuit, and finally come upon him in their automobile, only to find that Jepson's car has overturned and killed him. Before passing away he confesses his guilt to Natalie, who telegraphs her success to the chief. Returning to the hospital she finds her husband out of danger, and while telling him of her adventures a message comes from an adjoining room asking tor an interview with Natalie. Going to the room, she finds a dying stranger, who confesses to the murder of her father and thereby clears her husband's name.
- Young Marcia Saville has a boyfriend, Martin Kent, who loves her but she prefers the "excitement" of shady gangster Tom Smith. What she doesn't know is that Smith is setting up a scam to swindle Marcia's father.
- Trim little old maid Jennie Knox is wooed by Bob Johnson and Slim Lusk; Bob weighs 300 and Slim weighs 100. She doesn't like either one, saying that Bob is too fat and Slim is too thin. They decide to go to a sanatorium to try to meet the requirements by treatment. They reach the station and try to get a team to take them to the sanatorium, but everyone turns them down because of Bob's weight. Finally they get a wagon and start on their way. They go but a short distance when the wagon breaks down, the driver is sore and chases them both. They arrive at the sanatorium and are immediately put in training. At mealtime Bob gets a cracker and a small glass of milk; Slim gets enough to feed an army. Slim is fed on milk by a funnel and hose into which an attendant is constantly pouring milk. Johnson is so sore that he grabs a large steak from Slim's plate and runs out of the window, followed by Slim. He eats the steak while running down the road to the station. Arriving back in town they go to Jennie's home and rushing in find her with her wig off. They are then willing to let the other fellow have her and both exit.
- When Count Ivan, a Russian nobleman, falls under the displeasure of the government, Duke Boris is commanded by the Czar to deliver to the Count, a notice of the confiscation of his property and his banishment from Russia. The old Count is stunned by the blow. While he reads the Imperial order, Sonia, the Count's daughter, appears, and Boris is surprised to recognize in her a woman whom he has previously seen and admired. Sonia flames in anger at Boris, ordering him from the house. When she rushes to her father's side, she finds him dead, killed by the shock of his misfortune. She rises from her knees and swears to be revenged against the government, and Boris, as its agent. Fearing arrest herself, she secures her jewels and a bomb which her father had invented, and which was the cause of the imperial displeasure, and hides in the poorer parts of the city. Boris, seeking Sonia, finds that she has joined a society of anarchists and joins the society himself, in an effort to win her and rescue her from her dangerous associations. He rescues her from insult at the hands of Michael, one of the members, thus winning Sonia's love and Michael's enmity. Michael plots against Boris, or "Kamoroff," as he is known in his disguise. When Boris tries to persuade Sonia to give up the leadership of the society, which she has assumed, she accuses him of faint-heartedness in the cause, and sends him from her, and Boris, fearing to remain longer absent from court, sends word for his apartments to be made ready. The message falls into the hands of Peter, one of the anarchists, and unknown to Boris, they plan to place the bomb, invented by Count Ivan, in his rooms. Sonia is chosen to place the bomb. After Sonia has departed on her dangerous mission, Michael rushes in, crying that he has discovered "Kamoroff" to be the Duke Boris, whom they have sworn to kill. The anarchists all start in pursuit. In the meanwhile, Boris has discovered the loss of papers telling his identity and, in the midst of the realization of his danger, he hears the anarchists coming. He escapes by the window with Michael and the others in close pursuit. In the meanwhile, Sonia has reached Boris' apartments and has placed the bomb, stretching the trip-string across the floor. Boris succeeds in reaching his room. In the darkened apartment, Sonia conceals herself and when Boris enters, she springs upon him with a dagger. The anarchists start to batter down the door. Sonia and Boris, struggling, recognize each other in the moonlight. They draw apart in surprise and horror. Boris' foot strikes the string from the bomb and trips the mechanism. The door is yielding to the attack of the anarchists. Sonia, forgetting her revenge, throws herself into Boris' arms. She sees the smoking bomb and starts back in alarm at this new danger. At that moment the anarchists rush into the outer room. Sonia faints, and Boris, seizing the smoking bomb, hurls it at the on-coming "brotherhood." With a flash of flame and smoke it explodes. In the wrecked room, Boris recovers consciousness. The anarchists are piled in the doorway, killed by their bomb. In Boris' arms, Sonia opens her eyes, her thirst for revenge swallowed up in her great love.
- Jack Potts buys a ticket for the big ball game. On the morning of the game Wifie asks him for money to buy a new hat, but Jack, who intends to have a big time, tells her he has no money. He shows her the ticket, tells her he found it the night before, and induces her to telephone the boss that he is very ill. The boss is sorry for poor Jack, and telephones Mrs. Potts he is coming out to the house to see how her husband is. Jack is at the ball game, so Mrs. Potts pays a tramp a dollar, does him up in bandages and splints from head to foot, and explains to the boss when he arrives that Jack insisted on going to the office in spite of his illness, and was struck by an automobile on the way. When the boss sees the terrible condition of the supposed Jack he immediately tries to telephone his own physician to come with an ambulance and take Jack to the hospital, but the phone is out of order, and he decides to go out to the corner drug store and telephone. In the meantime Jack has "cleaned up" a bunch of money betting on the game, and tries to get Wifie on the phone, but, of course, is unsuccessful. He goes home, lets himself in quietly, and overhears the wife applying endearing terms to someone in the next room. He flies in a rage, but does not dare "butt in" on account of the boss. The boss goes to the drug store and Jack confronts his wife. Explanations follow, but the tramp threatens to expose the deception unless he gets more money, and keeps on demanding money every time he gets a chance. While they are arguing with the tramp the boss comes back and finds Jack. Mrs. Potts is first to recover her wits and tells the boss it is Jack's twin brother who has come in response to her telegram. Jack excuses himself, and goes out and makes some changes in the house numbers of a couple of other houses in the block to mislead the doctor, and succeeds in getting the doctor and the boss (who had gone out again to find out what was delaying the doctor) into the wrong houses, with the result that the doctor takes the boss to the hospital in the ambulance, thinking him mentally deranged.
- The last guardian of the wealth of the aristocratic Gresham family dies, leaving no one but his granddaughter Ruth and faithful family servant Wicks to remain in the isolated old mansion. The family's immense wealth lies concealed in a secret treasure room, reached by a hidden stairway. Gresham's will appoints John and Henry Collins, brothers of a law firm, to be the trustees and guardians of Ruth, who is to inherit the fortune when she comes of age. When the brothers have secured a glimpse of the treasure, its fascination overpowers them. They secretly plot to obtain possession of it. In their avarice, they neglect their business, which goes to ruin. Both move to the mansion to be near the wealth. Ruth, neglected and mistreated, is cared for only by the kind old butler, who has always looked upon the brothers with suspicion. Finally the brothers begin to suspect each other of appropriating the treasure. Mutual distrust soon breeds enmity. There is a quarrel and Henry leaves the mansion. He leaves behind a note on the mansion gate reading: "Beware, I shall return." This is found by John, who henceforth lives in constant terror lest the brother appear and kill him. Years later John a crabbed, miserly wretch; he refuses to allow either Ruth or Wicks near the treasure chamber. Ruth has blossomed into young womanhood, but through the stern decree of her irascible guardian seldom ventures beyond the confines of the estate. Finally John is stricken with heart trouble. Philip D'Arcy, a young physician, is called. Much against John's will, Philip decides to stay in the mansion until his patient has passed the danger mark. Gradually Philip begins to love Ruth. At the same time he is trying to solve the mystery surrounding the hidden wealth. Henry, the other brother, now a ragged wanderer, puts in an appearance. During Ruth and Philip's absence, Henry gains entrance into the mansion after struggling with Wicks and knocking him unconscious. A moment later John, in bed, sees Henry bending over him. Henry secures the keys to the treasure room and creeps down the stairway. John follows. A fierce fight between the gold-crazed brothers takes place. John presses a concealed button and precipitates Henry into a dungeon. Then John discovers the mansion has been set afire by a lantern which Henry had hurled at him. Philip, Ruth, and the villagers have now discovered the fire. Philip enters the mansion to try to rescue John. Ruth follows. Meanwhile John, groping in the smoke-filled treasure room, has fallen into the dungeon and lies dead, with Henry at the bottom of it. Philip is unable to find John and fights his way back through the flames to find that both Ruth and himself are trapped. After a struggle he carries Ruth to safety just as the mansion walls collapse. Wicks, the butler, is been resuscitated by villagers. Ruth, now convinced of Philip's bravery and love, consents to be his wife.
- Kid Kelly, a gangster in New York's Lower East Side, attempts to rob Goldberg's millinery store. When the police arrive, Flo Haines, who had come to the building to look at an apartment, hides. When the police find her, they charge her with the crime, but the Kid turns himself over to the law instead. After his release, he again meets Flo, who works in an artificial-flower factory by day and at Reverend Roberts' relief mission by night. The Kid soon falls in love with Flo, and his jealous sweetheart Mamie tricks her into coming to her apartment, where she drugs her and turns her over to Joe Carelli, the flower factory's lustful owner. The Kid saves Flo, but when Carelli is found murdered the next day, he is arrested for the crime. The confession of Annie, who had stabbed Carelli in a jealous rage, frees The Kid, who reforms himself and marries Flo.
- Pat Flynn, after a night at the club, refuses to respond to his wife's entreaties to rise. She leaves him and goes to the grocery store. Across the hall from Flynn lives John Falls and his wife. John is very jealous and has left for his office, after having a quarrel. Mrs. Flynn goes to the grocery store and leaves an order with instructions to have the things sent at once. Falls discovers the loss of some papers and decides to go home. The grocery boy in going to deliver the Flynn order rings the dumbwaiter bell. Flynn hears the bell ringing and rises; he is in his night shirt. He goes into the hall to the dumbwaiter, gets the groceries, but is unable to get into his flat, the door having closed upon him, for it has a Yale lock. He decides to ask the Falls if he can go through their flat on the fire-escape and into his room. As he is going along the fire-escape he is seen by Mr. Falls, who, thinking he is his wife's lover, rushes into the house. Flynn, discovering that he has left the groceries in Falls' flat and noting his scanty attire, puts on his trousers and again knocks on Mrs. Falls' door, explaining his forgetfulness, when his door slams shut again. One more he asks permission to cross the balcony to his own flat. Mrs. Falls grants his request and in shutting the door, shuts it in her husband's face. He peeps through the keyhole, sees Flynn and his wife laughing, flies, and putting his shoulder to the door, forces the lock off, rushes in, refuses to listen to wife's explanation, draws a gun and fires out of the window. A policeman hears the shot and arrives in time to prevent Falls from doing bodily harm to Flynn. An explanation is given and all ends well.
- Bess Baring, a worthy working girl, primps up in her best for a Sunday promenade. Jack Holmes, a modest wage earner, resolves to give the girls a treat, and also primps up. They both select the park as the place of vantage. Jack is fortunate in encountering Bill Smith, who is taking a spin in his automobile. Smith invites Jack to get in, which invitation is cheerfully accepted. Bess sits down on one of the benches and is watching the promenaders when a drunken hobo sits down by her side and commences to annoy her. The auto comes up just in time and the two boys jump out and spring to the rescue. The "boozer" is chased on his way and Jack gallantly sees the fair one home. The well-appointed make-ups of each impress the other, and both believe that they have encountered a scion of society. Bess is quite impressed and invites Jack to call and meet mother and have dinner. She borrows from well-disposed friends, some fine dresses, a handsome dinner service and a maid. Jack hires a full dress suit. The deception is carried out admirably and Jack falls in love, but, of course, thinks his case is hopeless with such fine people. Bess encourages, but can hardly hope to win out. Next morning at work they reason to themselves and resolve to end the deception. Each writes to the other, making a clean breast. Going to mail the letters they meet in the corridor, the epistles of confession are exchanged and both are made happy.
- John Pemberton, bachelor, gives a thorough education to his ward, Elsie, aged 18, whom he secretly loves. During Elsie's final year at school in the city, John is startled to learn that she contemplates marriage with George Trent. John hurries to the city, finds Elsie in all innocence in Trent's home, and against her protests, hurries her away. With Elsie back in her home, John is distressed to learn that she is planning an elopement with Trent. John intercepts Elsie just as she is leaving the house. He leads her to the library and leaves her alone with an envelope containing the reasons why she must not wed Trent. As Elsie reads, she sees her mother, Alice, wooed by both John and a man named Craig, forced by her father to wed Craig because of his wealth. Later, when Elsie is pictured as a child of three, Alice is extremely unhappy with Craig, who mistreats her. Trent then enters the story. Professing friendship for Alice, he urges her to divorce herself from Craig. Meanwhile, Craig, enamored of a courtesan named Clara, prepares a note, saying that he is leaving Alice. He does not know that Alice, determined to divorce him, has written John, as an attorney, to come to her and arrange for the separation. Craig, carrying the note, enters his home to learn that John is there. The life-long hatred he has borne for John culminates in a fight in which Craig is killed by Alice in self-defense. Trent, unseen, has witnessed the tragedy through the window. John finds in Craig's pocket the note he had addressed to Alice. To all intents, it is a note left by a man contemplating suicide. Craig's death wound appears to have been self-inflicted. So John, to save Alice, places Craig's note on the table and the revolver in his hand. To all appearances Craig has committed suicide. John then takes Alice, with little Elsie, to his mansion, where she recuperates. John's love for Alice grows stronger and he asks her to marry him. She agrees. Trent, who has learned of Alice's presence in John's home, creeps into the house during John's absence and confronts Alice. He plunges her into mortal terror by telling her he knows she killed Craig and will keep quiet only upon her promise to marry him. John, returning unexpectedly, furiously attacks Trent. Trent, maddened, turns upon Alice with the declaration that he is going to expose her as a murderess. The shock is too much for Alice's constitution and she drops dead of heart failure. The story fades back to the library, where Elsie finishes reading of how her mother died through Trent's perfidy. Elsie, repentant, seeks John. He is waiting for her, with the ring he had intended to put upon Alice's finger years before. And Elsie accepts him.
- Samuel Ellis and May, his second wife, live by their wits. Sam has a daughter by his first wife who has inherited her ideas and beauty from her dead mother. The Ellises concoct a scheme whereby they can use the girl to land them in the social swim. They take expensive apartments at the Savoy Hotel and send for Lily to join them. The girl leaves her school friends and takes a train for the city. As she enters the Pullman, "High Brow Joe," a crook, sees his chance to steal her handbag containing her ticket and money. When the conductor calls tor tickets, Lily is much embarrassed, but quickly relieved by a good looking stranger on the opposite side of the car. Arriving at the depot the stranger loses himself in the crowd without having given his name or address. Joe follows the stranger and relieves him of his wallet, in which he finds considerable money, papers and cards bearing the name of Robert Leeds. Later Joe reads in a paper that an immense fortune has been left to Robert Leeds and as the stranger has taken a connecting train for the west, Joe feels safe in impersonating his victim. He goes to the Savoy Hotel and registers under the name of Robert Leeds and is duly entertained as the young millionaire. Lily arrives at the hotel and as the news spreads the Ellises lose no time in becoming acquainted with the supposed Robert Leeds and introducing their daughter. At every opportunity, Lily is thrown in his way with due instructions to make herself agreeable, but try as she may she cannot like him. Later she detects him in stealing from the guests and Joe, feeling that she will probably hand him over to the police, decoys her into a cab with one of his pals and takes her to a hangout run by "Frisco Fan." There she is held a prisoner. She, however, manages to write a note stating her condition and throws it from the window. A gentleman passes and picking it up, carefully finds his way to her room and talking through the keyhole learns the true state of affairs. The girl pluckily declares that she will remain while the stranger goes for help. The man is no other than the true Robert Leeds; he goes to the Savoy Hotel and seeing his own name upon the register signs John Smith. The real Robert Leeds, secures the assistance of Farrel, the hotel detective, who quickly releases Lily from her prison and round up "Frisco Fan" and a number of crooks. Leeds then goes back to deal with "High-Brow Joe," gives him the beating of his life and turns him over to the detective. The Ellises are glad to get out of the hotel without paying their bill and it is a great pity they could not have been present when a happy bride and groom registered that night as Mr. and Mrs. Robert Leeds at the Savoy.
- Carola de Lisle, a wealthy Corsican woman, with all the fierceness of her race, has been for two seasons the reigning sensation of Nice. Her recklessness at the gambling tables causes her to become known as "Belle Corsicaine." John Selden, a wealthy American, who is on a business trip to Europe arrives in company with a friend Philip Shaw. Carola tries hard to capture Selden with her wiles and although deeply in love with his wife at home he is not averse to a little flirtation with the beautiful Corsican. She makes him her guest in her apartments, and his name is many times mingled with hers when they are seen together in the automobile parades of the afternoons. But the American does not suspect that he has a bitter enemy, supposedly his friend in the person of Joseph Morse, once an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of his wife, and his escapades with the Corsican are treasured as being seeds for the sowing of discord on his return to America. On one occasion Morse makes a snap shot picture of Selden and Carola together, apparently in a spirit of jest but in reality to furnish evidence of at least constructive infidelity to the wife at home. On the arrival of Morse in America, he immediately excites the jealousy of Lenore Selden by telling her of her husband's escapades with Carola, and showing her the photograph with them together. Selden's young son Jack, a lad of 13 or 14 years of age, refuses to believe the stories to the discredit of his father and sends him a cablegram urging him to return home at once. Then it becomes necessary for Selden to inform Carola that he is a married man and their pleasant relations must come to an end. She writes him a note saying that rather than see him leave her for another woman she would kill both him and herself. On receiving no reply from him, she proceeds to his room to find that he has departed for America. She secures his address at the hotel office and follows him to New York, where they arrive on the same day in separate steamers. She proceeds at once to a hotel and Selden to his home. Here he is coldly received by his wife and on demanding a reason for it, learns of Morse's vile tales against him and telephones him to come to the house at once. Morse, never dreaming that his deceit has been discovered, replies that he will come. At the same time Carola has left her hotel and proceeded to the address secured in Nice. Before Morse's arrival at the Selden home, the husband endeavors to convince his wife of his fidelity, but without success. In a burst of affection he takes her in his arms and the scene is witnessed by the vengeful Corsican outside the window, pistol in hand. But before she can fire the shot, Morse is announced. Morse enters the room with Selden, and the latter shows him a paper to sign, in which he confesses that he has spread lying tales about him to influence his wife. This Morse refuses to sign, and before Selden can enforce compliance Carola shoots through the window and escapes not knowing that her bullet has reached Morse's heart instead of Selden's. The police are called and an examination made. The confession intended for Morse to sign and a pistol with one chamber empty, are held to be sufficient evidence of Selden's guilt. He is arrested, tried, found guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. After appeals to the governor have failed, the stricken family endeavors to settle down and wait until the long years have waned away, and among the first duties assumed by the wife and son is the packing away of his wearing apparel. While folding a coat little Jack discovers in one of the pockets, the note written to Selden by Carola in Nice, and Lenore now believes that she is on the track of the true criminal. But the police refuse to busy themselves with the case, since there is no evidence that the woman has ever been in New York. Lenore, however, is not satisfied and visits her husband in the penitentiary. While not hopeful for the success of her plan to proceed to Nice and meeting Carola, he is only too glad to consent to any plan that may lighten his own burden of apparent guilt. Accordingly she proceeds with her son to Nice. She is armed with a requisition from the governor of her state, in case that the probable guilt of the suspected Corsican can be established. Proceeding to the Casino, she mingles at once with the people there, and meets Carola at one of the gambling tables. Carola wins heavily, and invites Lenore to supper. At the table, under the influence of wine, Carola acknowledges that she has been in New York, and left it again within three hours, the noise having almost driven her mad. When Carola passes along the corridor to her room she becomes conscious that she is being followed. She opens the door of her room, but before she can close it Lenore stands before her and accuses her of the murder of Morse. Carola under the sudden accusation convinces Lenore of her guilt. She proceeds to the push button on the wall for the purpose of calling the hotel people when in her terror Carola seizes her. A fierce struggle ensues between the two women and Lenore is being overpowered when Jack, hearing the noise in the room, calls the police, and the guilty woman is in the hands of the law to be taken back to America.
- Jane and Belle are alone on their dead father's Southern plantation. They have been raised with Pedro, a Castillian Spaniard, who was brought to the plantation as a waif and has grown up with the girls as their constant companion. Gradually Jane, the older sister, has grown to love Pedro. Belle also has affection for the Spaniard, but remains silent when she learns of Jane's love. Craven, overseer of the plantation, is an unscrupulous character, who dislikes Pedro. By their father's death, the superintendency of the plantation falls (through a mortgage) to middle-aged Gray, and he grows to love Jane. About this time the plantation stables burn through Craven's neglect. During the fire Pedro saves Belle's life. Craven contrives to have Pedro accused of setting fire to the stables and the two men fight; in his fury Craven declares in Jane's presence that Pedro is not a Spaniard but has Negro blood; Pedro pleads with Jane not to believe it. As he embraces her, Jane, overcome by the horror of the thought that Craven's words may be true, shrinks from him and he leaves the plantation brokenhearted. Before his departure he is met by Belle, who, for the first time, openly manifests her love for him. Several years later Gray has married Jane, but the two are gradually drifting apart. Pedro, now a surveyor, is encamped near the plantation. He has with him his faithful assistant, Zeb, who has remained loyal to him from the day Pedro left the plantation. Belle has never forgotten her love for Pedro. On the day that Pedro's surveying camp is located near the plantation, Belle finds her father's diary which shows that Pedro was brought to the plantation from a nearby Catholic mission and is a Spaniard, not a negro. Belle breaks the news to Jane the same day. Several hours later Belle and Pedro meet near the plantation, where Pedro is told the real story of his parentage. The two now openly profess their love and meet daily at a rustic platform built from the edge of a cliff over a deep river. Craven learns of Pedro's presence in the neighborhood and warns Jane's husband, Gray, to watch Jane and Pedro. Gray sees Jane and Pedro in an accidental meeting and sees enough to rouse his suspicions. Meanwhile Jane realizes that her love for Pedro has reasserted itself. But she knows now that Belle is the recipient of Pedro's affection, and this leads to an unpleasant interview between the two sisters. Belle, determined to wed Pedro, agrees to elope with him. They are to meet at the trysting place overlooking the river. Craven knows that Pedro will be out on the platform at a certain hour, and he tampers with a trap-door so that it will be sprung as soon as Pedro steps upon the platform and precipitate him into the river below. That evening Gray sits awake to watch developments, believing that Jane and Pedro are having clandestine meetings. Belle, ready to elope creeps from the house to make for the trysting place. Jane secretly follows her. Gray follows both of the women. Zeb has seen Craven tampering with the trap-door and hurries to warn Pedro. Pedro, realizing that Belle will reach the platform ahead of him, runs frantically to intercept her. On the way he meets the jealous Gray. The men fight and Gray is knocked out. Pedro, arriving breathless at the river platform, is about to be fired upon by Craven from ambush, but Zeb intercepts in time to save his life. The two men engage in death grapple. Belle has proceeded to the platform, ignorant of the fate that awaits her, but is saved in the nick of time by Pedro. In the struggle between Pedro and Craven, the latter is forced out upon the platform and he plunges through the trap-door to the river hundreds of feet below. He is drowned. Explanations convince Gray of Jane's innocence and husband and wife are reconciled while Belle and Pedro depart to be married.
- Clara Roland is the daughter of the president of a company that owns mines and electric railways that run through a heavily-forested region. Clara's suitors are Ralph Gresham, superintendent of the company, and young engineer Basil Conrad, who incurs Gresham's dislike by protesting against the storing of powder intended for the mines in a wooden freight house located in the forest and the lack of precautions against forest fires. When it appears that Clara favors Basil. Gresham resorts to underhand means to throw upon Basil strong suspicion of crime and he is discharged. Basil is forced to find employment as a laborer in a lumber camp in the hills. With his rival removed Gresham now has high hopes of winning Clara. The very carelessness against which Basil vainly protested at length causes a forest fire which is soon beyond control, and which places in great danger a number of settlers in the lumber camps, whose only hope for escape is by means of the electric line, along which the fire is already burning. No man will make the desperate attempt to rescue the imperiled settlers. However. Clara determines to do so, and she seizes a car and dashes into the fire zone. Meanwhile, Basil has succeeded in gathering at a point on the line all the settlers, trusting that a rescue train would come. Clara finally succeeds in reaching this point. Gresham, shamed by the girl's superior courage and frantic at the thought of her peril, follows as fast as he dares. By desperate efforts, Clara and Basil have brought their car to a point almost alongside the freight house where the powder is stored when the current suddenly fails and the car stops; the feed wire has broken near where Gresham is standing. The freight shed is now on fire, and Gresham realizes it is a matter only of moments before it will blow up. It is impossible for the people on the car to escape on foot, their only chance being to rush through the fire. Gresham determines to save Clara and the others from the results of his own acts, and with his bare hands seizes the ends of the broken feed wire. The car leaps forward, dashes through the fire, and all are saved. A moment later the powder house explodes. Gresham has died at the first shock of the powerful current, but the magnetism has welded his hands to the wires and kept the circuit closed. Examination of the documents in Gresham's office proves Basil's innocence of the charges against him and the lovers are happily united.
- Ralph Vincent is an all-round sport, in spite of the fact that he has a charming wife and lovely baby at home. His wife, Effie, trusts him implicitly, although she has heard some rather ugly rumors concerning him. Ralphs receives a tip on a horse by wire from the city and wants to play it, but has not the money. He tries to borrow it from a fellow employee in the office, but not succeeding, he, at last, obtains it from Hiram Hayes, the old man who runs the grocery store over which the Vincents have rooms. He tells Hiram he needs it for his family. He wires the money on and shortly after, receiving word that his horse has won, he hastily packs a bag and goes to the city. Here, inflated with his winnings, he joins a gay crowd and has the time of his life. He plays poker with the boys and joins a merry crowd of fast men and women at supper. In the meantime, he has mailed the amount of his loan to Hiram and his wife, Effie, is down in Hiram's store when it arrives. There is, however, no letter for her. Putting two and two together, she fears the worst and Hiram kindly offering to look after the baby, she departs for the city, in search of Ralph. Knowing the address of his hotel from the letter-head enclosing Hiram's money, she goes straight there and reaches the café at the height of the festivities, arriving at the very moment that Ralph is distinguishing himself by drinking a toast out of one of the woman's slippers. Effie takes one look and then burying her face in her hands, she rushes from the room and hastens home, heartbroken. Ralph is instantly checked in his mad career by the sight of his little wife and despite the pleadings of his companions, he leaves the café, accompanied by a good-hearted friend named Fred Strong. Some hours later, Ralph comes to his senses in a Turkish bath, surrounded by his friends of the evening. Realizing the baseness of his recent actions. Realizing the baseness of his recent actions, he wants to call up his wife on the telephone to ask her pardon, but he lacks the courage. There he sits a humiliated man, blankly staring at the picture of his baby in a locket. He has spent all of his winnings during his debauch, and has lost the love and respect of his wife and possibly his position. Overcome by remorse he lays down the locket and leaves the room, wandering aimlessly through the bath. Then Fred Strong, who has found the telephone number, calls up Hiram at the grocery store, who responds dressed in his night clothes. Effie and baby are soon brought down to the phone and negotiations for the return of Ralphs are begun. Fred and the balance of Ralph's friends at one end of the wire in their bath costumes and Effie, Hiram and the baby at the other, all in dishabille. Then Ralph is brought to the phone, he talks to Effie and she and the baby talk to him. Effie tells him to come home. While Ralph is dressing, Fred starts a collection for the baby, which proves a generous one and enclosing the bills with the locket in an envelope, directed to the child, they hand it to Ralph and wish him "Godspeed." Ralph arrives and regaining his wife's love and his position, he swears off from a sporting life and the next time he receives a tip by wire, he tears up the telegrams and throws it in the waste basket.
- Jack Bowdoin, a gambler, had killed his man and gloried in it; yet he had a strange passion for music and had installed in his private room an organ where, without instruction, he had grasped the works of the great sacred masters. Among his customers was a young man named Carl Colt, who nightly gambled his small salary. His sister, Mary, an organist at the church, came one night to Bowdoin's casino and requested an interview. Being shown into the private room, she ran her fingers over the keys of the organ. Bowdoin entered and listened, then exclaimed, "I will give you a thousand dollars if you can make me play like that." Mary immediately spoke of her mission and begged the gambler to cure her brother of his passion for the game. At this moment a shot rang out in the casino and Bowdoin found Carl defending himself against a desperado, Shorty Hall, who had stolen a bet from the table. Shorty was ejected and Mary and her father continued the plea for the reformation of Carl. Hall and some of his companions abducted Mary and held her for ransom, Bowdoin rescued Mary, He then begged to know how he could be worthy of the friendship of so pure a girl. She told him. Jack sold his casino and renounced gambling. After convicting the abductors of Mary he saw an insane woman committed to the asylum; she had a little child and Jack agreed to adopt her and put up bond for the child's good care. Mary agreed to take charge of the little girl for which Jack paid well. The circumstance brought them into notice, and was enhanced by the fact that Mary would often take Jack to the organ loft and teach him the sacred music. The talk of the church folks became loud and caused a duel in which Jack was wounded. Mary cared for him at the hospital and the ex-gambler urged that there was only one way to stop the tongues of the deacons of the church. He pleaded and Mary consented to go to the church and be married.
- Amelia Lowell conducts a newsstand. Helen, her daughter, a shop-girl, is a continual source of happiness to the old woman, but her son, Kelly a crook, brings continual sorrow. The son and his associates engineer a big jewel robbery and Kelly flees to the mother's tenement apartments to divide the spoils with his partners. The police raid the place, kill Kelly, and capture the others. Some of the jewelry has been placed in the mother's jacket by the son to divert suspicion. Amelia, under the unjust suspicion of Detective Kane, is arrested for participating in the robbery, of which she had no knowledge. While she is serving her unjust sentence in prison, Helen, her daughter, marries Henry Corliss, a young author who has not yet found success. Observing her mother's urgent wish, Helen lets Henry know nothing of her mother. Henry, now a successful novelist, is given so much valuable assistance by his secretary, Rose, that he unconsciously develops a growing fondness for the woman and Rose encourages Henry's affection. Helen, angered at Henry's attention to Rose, counters by accepting favors from Kane, the detective, whom she has met on her trips to aid the poor. Helen does not know of Kane's part in landing her mother in jail, neither does she realize that the detective is a man of questionable moral intentions. When Amelia's term is finished, she refuses to reveal her identity to Henry, believing it would interfere in the happiness of Helen and the future of the little girl, Doris. Amelia continues to conduct the news-stand, and even Helen does not hear from her now. One day Amelia is instrumental in saving little Doris from death in front of an auto. Both Doris and Amelia are injured. Henry, happening by in an auto, has the girl and the old lady hurriedly taken to his home, never realizing Amelia is his mother-in-law. He asks Helen to keep the old lady as a nurse for Doris. Amelia is prevailed upon to stay, but still fears to reveal her identity to Henry, but soon Amelia learns of the discord that threatens the happiness of the home. Henry discovers Helen opening a note from Kane, urging her to leave her husband, who is causing scandal by his intimacy with Rose. Henry has never seen Kane, but realizes Helen has given him encouragement. Furious, he leaves the house, intending to depart from the city with Rose and marry her when a divorce has been granted. Amelia follows Henry, confronts him and Rose in his office and soon has both ashamed of themselves. Henry promises to return home. Amelia hurries home to find Helen packing up preparatory to leaving with Kane, who enters the house a few minutes later. Henry realizes that Kane must be the object of Helen's affection. He enters the house and comes face to face with Kane. Previous to this Kane has seen Amelia hide Helen's jewels, hoping in this way to delay Helen's departure until Henry will arrive. As Henry comes face to face with Kane and Amelia, Kane tries to save himself by announcing that as a detective he has called to arrest Amelia for jewel theft. He brings forth the supposedly stolen gems. Amelia, refusing to ruin her daughter's future by telling Henry that Helen had planned to go with Kane, admits that she placed the jewels where Kane found them. She cannot deny, either, that she has served a prison term. Just when it seems that Amelia will be led away by Kane, Helen has crept downstairs, unseen. Now thoroughly repentant, she will not tolerate her mother's attempted sacrifice, but tells Henry everything. Henry's rage now turns against Kane and the men fight until Kane is badly whipped. Amelia then convinces Henry that he has been as faulty as Helen in their discord and brings them happily together. But "the meddlesome darling" goes further. She transfers Henry's office to his own home and employs a male secretary instead of Rose.