- "Richard the Brazen" is the romance of a modern knight who has all the flourish and daring of the knights of old, although he happened to be born in Texas in the 20th century. While traveling with his chum, an English peer, an accident forces him to assume his friend's title, valet, and monocle and leads to a meeting with a girl whom he had worshipped from afar in England. He is obliged to court her under false pretenses, and the complications growing out of this false situation culminate in a stirring fight with a burglar in which the true state of affairs is revealed and Richard restored to his rightful title as scion of a Texas family. - New York Dramatic Mirror, July 28, 1917.—Pamela Short
- Williams, an American, and guest of Lord Croyland, an important agent of the British War Department, sees Harriet Renwyk and her cousin Imogene, American girls, in a London chop house. He becomes infatuated with Harriet. Croyland receives orders to go to New York to buy munitions, and Richard receives a summons from his father, Bill Williams, a Texas cattleman and financier. The elder Williams, although the son is unaware of it, has been involved in business with Jacob Renwyk, father of Harriet. The two partners fall out over the contract that Croyland is to place in America, and each determines to get it for himself. In New York, Croyland and Richard are in an automobile accident, his lordship being injured, while Richard escapes. Croyland gives the police Richard's name as his own. He asks Richard to go to Renwyk, to whom he has sent letters of introduction, and explain his inability to call. Renwyk mistakes Richard for the real Lord, and he, meeting Harriet, brazenly accepts the role. He woos Harriet, and her father woos the contract. Richard learns that Renwyk's plan is to beat the elder Williams, and he contrives to evade the issue. He has borrowed Lord Croyland's English valet. Two others penetrate Richard's disguise: Harriet and Corrigan, a canny relative of her father. Neither, however reveals the secret. A former admirer of Imogene threatens her if she does not buy back letters she had written him. She confides in Harriet, and at an appointed time the blackmailer, FitzGeorge. comes to collect his toll. While he is holding up Imogene, his confederate takes the diamonds from the Renwyk safe. The burglar gets out of the house, but Corrigan, who had seen him climbing out of the window, overpowers him. Meantime, Richard has come downstairs and hears a heated argument between the two women and FitzGeorge. Harriet has grabbed the letters from him and defied him. A struggle ensues, and Imogene, in terror hides in a corner. Richard does not see her as he grapples with FitzGeorge. He imagines that Harriet is guilty of a clandestine affair, which impression is increased when Harriet begs him to let FitzGeorge escape. This he does, and leaves the room. Aroused by the noise downstairs, Renwyk comes down, meets Richard, and sees that his safe has been robbed. He suspects him of the crime, and has the police summoned. The elder Williams arrives from Texas, and resents Renwyk's branding Richard a thief. The two elder men are joined by Corrigan, fresh from his encounter with the burglar. Richard explains to his father why he was in the Renwyk house. Corrigan hands Renwyk the jewels he recovered from the burglar, and when the police arrive they find the prisoner, and also capture FitzGeorge. Corrigan then informs Renwyk and Williams that he has been to the hospital and obtained the munitions contract from Croyland, and that tends to give it to Richard and Harriet as a wedding present.
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