Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-50 of 57
- Myra Maynard, is plagued by a wide variety of metaphysical assaults by the corrupt Black Order, a secret organization which uses magic, curses and any supernatural means possible to achieve its ends.
- With the help of a private detective, Elaine tries to catch the masked criminal mastermind The Clutching Hand, who has murdered her father.
- Eugenicist Harry J. Haiselden warns a young couple who are considering marriage that they are ill-matched and will produce defective offspring. He is right; their baby is born defective, dies quickly, and floats up into heaven.
- Hazel Kirke, daughter of Dunstan Kirke, a miller, is sent off to be educated by Squire Rooney, who has promised to marry her upon her return. All this in repayment for a small sum which Rodney advanced to save the old mill from the auction block. Five years later, near the end of her school years, she meets Arthur Carringford. At home again, she renews her promise to Rodney. Some days later, Arthur on a hunting trip, meets with an accident near the mill, and is confined there for some weeks, during which time a new friendship springs up between the two. Some time later, when Rodney and Dunstan see Hazel and Arthur embracing, Dunstan denounces them and sends them away. Arthur's mother, to save the family fortune, wishes Arthur to marry Maude, her ward, who is loved by Pittacus Greene, and whose fortune was squandered by the elder Carringford before his death. She sends Pittacus and Arthur's valet to dissuade Arthur from marrying Hazel, and they arrive as the two are coming away. At a nearby village, the valet, thinking the ceremony is to be a fake, goes to a saloon for a "minister." He then notifies Mrs. Carringford by letter. A few weeks later that lady arrives during Arthur's absence and tells Hazel that she has been duped. The girl, distracted, runs away and upon Arthur's return the panic-stricken mother tells of the plot and passes away from a heart attack. After a day or two's search for Hazel, Arthur rides toward home, stopping at a small church. The parson proves to be the one who married them and he tells of his good work in the slums of nearby towns disguised as a "tough." The two ride off to the mill hoping to meet Hazel. Unknown to the young people, Dunstan's terrible denunciation of them has left him sightless and it is before Hazel's blinded father that the two are reunited with parental blessing, only after Arthur has rescued Hazel from the icy millpond waters into which she had thrown herself.
- Serial in 15 parts about a female crime-fighting reporter.
- Serial about Japanese spies trying to invade the US but whose plans are foiled by a rich heiress and a Secret Service agent.
- An Indian rajah determines to give the prince, his son, the advantages of an American university education, and brings him to the United States. Arriving at the university town they stop at the hotel there and are immediately besieged by the reporters who scent a good story, especially as it is reported that the rajah brings with him one of the famous jewels of the world, a magnificent diamond. Among the reporters is a young man on his first assignment who at once makes friends with the prince. In the meantime Nell Reardon, the "badger queen," is approached by Moreland, a "gentleman" crook, and threatened with exposure if she does not aid him to obtain possession of the rajah's jewel. She promises her aid and as a first step registers at the same hotel as the rajah, under the alias of the "Countess Mirska." Billy is assigned to interview her. The prince is struck with the woman's charms and persuades Billy to introduce him. At the instigation of Moreland. the woman persuades the prince to show her the diamond. Fearing his father's displeasure the young man secretly takes the jewel from the strong box. Seeing their opportunity, Moreland and Harley, his "pal," invite the prince to have some refreshments at the hotel café and the prince asks to have Billy included in the party. The jewel is passed around and admired. By accident, and while no one is looking, it falls from the case and lodges in the cuff of the reporter's trousers. Later, while in his own room, he discovers it and immediately runs back to the hotel to return it to the prince. Unable to find him, he decides to stay at the hotel for the night, takes a room and throws himself upon the bed, fully clothed. The anxiety of his responsibility preys upon his mind so that his slumbers are disturbed and his rest is a nightmare. In the meantime the prince discovers the loss, tells the crooks of it and they search the café together. The crooks secretly believe each other guilty, but when they tax one another with the crime they mutually prove their innocence. Without saying anything to each other they visit the reporter's home and search his room. Finding one another in the room their mutual distrust deepens. Billy's distraught mind causes him to talk in his sleep and while doing so he drops the jewel over the hotel balcony. It falls at the feet of the prince, but he does not enjoy its possession long. Harley, who has been spying upon him, knocks him out and escapes with the diamond. The further vicissitudes of the diamond are intensely interesting and lead up to the superb climax where the prince recovers it and sees the baffled crook, Moreland, go over the bridge into the ravine below in the trolley car in which he has tried to escape.
- Episode 1: "The Lost Torpedo" Craig Kennedy's marvelous invention, a super-force torpedo to revolutionize warfare, has been stolen. Kennedy himself has disappeared, although Elaine has a note from him begging her not to grieve whatever happens, for he is safe. And then, one night, on a barren strip of land jutting out into the Atlantic, a fisherman, concealed behind a rock, sees the periscope of a submarine rise; sees a man's head and shoulders rise seemingly out of the sea, and sees a pair of athletic arms strike out bravely for the shore. That night, at a hotel in New York, a distinguished-looking foreigner, much resembling the man who seemed to rise up out of the sea, is shadowed by a fussy old gentleman resembling the fisherman of the coast scenes. The foreigner goes out and the fussy old gentleman goes to his room, where, after a short, sharp struggle with a valet, he searches through all drawers and papers. One paper he pockets with glee, and then departs. Elaine and Jameson are visited by the distinguished-looking foreigner who tells them he is a secret service agent from Washington, and begs to get information with regard to Kennedy and the lost torpedo. Elaine's dog, digging with its forepaws in a pot of palms, unearths the lost torpedo and carries it to the attic, where he drops it behind a trunk. The torpedo's propeller, however, has been left in the palm-pot. where Marcius Del Mar, the foreigner, finds it. Elaine is suspected by him of having concealed the torpedo. The fussy old gentleman, in Del Mar's tracks since he left his rooms, is an interested spectator. He is unaware that Del Mar has spies guarding the house, and is set upon by them. Rushing madly into the conservatory, he faces Del Mar. Both draw their guns, but the fussy old gentleman fires first. His gun is loaded with bullets containing an overpowering gas. Both Del Mar and Elaine fall suffocated to the floor. How the fussy old gentleman escapes is a fitting climax to this episode.
- A criminologist and a government agent team up to expose a ring of German spies.
- A series of 14 two-reel episodes, each complete in itself, involving the exploits of J. Rufus Wallingford and Blackie Daw, con men extraordinaire.
- A husband, mistakenly believing his wife has cheated on him and that he is now the father of their newborn son, throws both her and her child out of the house. Frantic to the point of madness, she abandons her baby, and when she gains her sanity she flees to Alaska to start a new life. However, her husband finds out and follows her there.
- Martin O'Day, professional gambler and saloon-keeper, has bet heavily on the New York Yankees winning from the Giants in the deciding game between the two clubs for the championship of New York City. O'Day has been led to believe that Bert Kerrigan, star pitcher of the Giants, will not be in condition to play. At the last moment, however, McGraw, to the consternation of the Yankee backers, announces that Kerrigan will pitch. Realizing that he stands to lose many thousands of dollars, O'Day decides to kidnap Kerrigan. The pitcher is engaged to marry Rita Malone, and has already furnished an apartment for his bride-to-be. O'Day sends an anonymous letter to Rita, warning her that Kerrigan has another girlfriend, and that if she calls at a certain hotel at 9 o'clock the morning of the game, she can get proof of his duplicity. He also sends a letter to Kerrigan, telling him that Rita is untrue and visits the hotel. Kerrigan is told to watch a certain window of the hotel at 9:30 the next morning. Rita, greatly worried, writes to Beatrice Fairfax, who confides in Jimmy Barton, the newspaper reporter. Jimmy is already working on the story of the ball game, and has had several interviews with Donovan, of the Yankees, and McGraw, of the Giants. He knows that O'Day is betting heavily on the Giants and goes to see him. Meantime Rita and Kerrigan have separately gone to the hotel. Rita is escorted into a room, the window of which Kerrigan is watching. She is seized from behind and her face is covered with kisses. From the street it seems to Kerrigan that she is returning the caresses. He rushes up to the room, is trapped, captured and bound. One of the gang then sends a note to O'Day, telling him that Kerrigan is trapped and being held. The note arrives, while Jimmy, feigning drunkenness, is talking to O'Day. Jimmy sees its contents and covers O'Day with a revolver. Then he makes the gambler write a note to his subordinates, telling them to obey orders from Jimmy, after which he locks O'Day in a vault. Jimmy hurries to the hotel, presents the note and secures possession of Kerrigan and Rita. It is then afternoon and the ball game is on. Beatrice has just arrived at the hotel too. The four leap into an automobile and there is a wild race through the city streets to the Polo Grounds, in which several policemen take part. The fifth inning is being played when they finally reach the crowded grounds, and the score is 2 to 0 in favor of the Yankees. The Giants bat and score three runs in the sixth, giving them a lead of one. The Yanks come back in their half and the first three men up get on bases. Kerrigan has hurried to the clubhouse and at this stage of the game appears on the field in uniform. "It's up to you to save us, Bert," says McGraw to Kerrigan, "there's three on and nobody out." Kerrigan goes on, strikes out the next three and holds the Yankees safe for the remaining innings, the Giants winning, 3 to 2. It is not until after the game that Kerrigan can explain his mysterious absence to Manager McGraw. Then, too, Rita and Kerrigan explain their presence at the hotel and Jimmy tells of O'Day's attempt to wreck their lives to accomplish his end. While the great crowd is surging from the grounds, Beatrice and Jimmy hurry to their offices to write the story.
- The revenue men in New York are after the smugglers of opium and find that a certain Chinaman is in the habit of receiving a supply of the drug at stated periods. They follow him in the hope they will be led to the headquarters of the international band, who they feel sure are back of the traffic. The Chinaman fails to pay on time for the last supply he has received, and in turn the New York distributor is unable to send the money to the headquarters of the gang. This brings the chief to New York to investigate. While there he visits his broker, John Maxwell. He intends his visit to be secret, but is seen by one of the stenographers. This incenses him and angry words pass. In the meantime the Chinaman comes to the office and pays his bill. As the clerk is making out the receipt the detectives raid the place and find the dead body of the broker. All suspicion points to the clerk, who is accused of the murder of his employer. He is taken away by one of the detectives, but makes his escape. He goes to the North Country, makes application to join the Boundary Riders, and after a probation is accepted as an agent of law and order. On one of his patrols he finds a note that gives him a clue to the headquarters of the opium smugglers. The detective from the New York office of the Revenue Service comes to the camp of the riders to continue his investigations. There he recognizes the clerk. The clerk employs a clever woman investigator, who in guise of a Chinaman gets employment as a cook at the smugglers' headquarters. With the information she secures, he leads the revenue men to the headquarters of the gang. The raid is successful, but as all are congratulating the new member on his success the detective steps up and arrests him on the charge of murdering his employer. The investigator, however, has done her work well and produces a coat belonging to the head smuggler from which are torn two pieces which exactly match two pieces of cloth found in the hand of the dead man. This exonerates the clerk and puts added power in the hands of the government men.
- Lieutenant Bert Hall, an ace American flyer serving in World War I as a member of the French Lafayette Escadrille, is wounded in an aerial battle and forced to land behind enemy lines. Finding his German opponent dead, Hall exchanges uniforms with him and is taken to a German hospital to recover. There he meets his old Kentucky sweetheart, who was unable to escape Berlin when the war broke out. Accompanied by the Countess of Moravia, who claims sympathy with the Allied cause but is actually a German spy, they escape to France in a German plane. Through the countess' duplicity, Hall is accused of betraying the French government and sentenced to be shot, but his American lover uncovers evidence that saves him at the last moment.
- A young man proposes a lottery with himself as the prize in marriage. However he finds himself very much in love with a woman other than the winner.
- Episode 1: "The Serpent Sign" Miss Elaine Dodge, daughter and heiress of the late Taylor Dodge, whose murder has attracted such world-wide attention, has again had her life seriously threatened. It appears that before the death of Perry Bennett, this modern Dr. Jekyll disclosed the hiding-place of his tremendous fortune to one Long Sin, a Chinese adventurer. Bennett formerly owned the house now occupied by Miss Dodge's Aunt Tabby. On a recent visit to her aunt, Miss Dodge was startled in the early hours of the morning by strange noises. Her aunt had already been aware of this condition, but being superstitious, had put it down to ghosts. Miss Dodge, whose life has lately been one continuous round of self-defense, immediately communicated with Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective whose apprehension of the notorious Clutching Hand caused such favorable comment throughout the land. Kennedy has lately come into the possession of Bennett's papers and his keen eye detected at once the similarity of a plan on one of these and the construction of Aunt Tabby's fireplace. A secret passageway was disclosed, through which the redoubtable sleuth and his assistant descended, only to be overcome by gas, and almost murdered by Long Sin, who had entered the passage from the mouth of a cave in an adjoining woods. Miss Dodge, whose nerve has been put to the test in a hundred cases, alarmed by the fumes, and fearing for the lives of her protectors, descended to the passageway where a queer sight met her eyes. Interviewed to-day by a Journal reporter, Miss Dodge said: "1 had no sooner turned an angle in the passageway when I was almost paralyzed by the sight of Long Sin bending over Craig and Mr. Jameson with a long, murderous knife. A safe embedded in the rock had been opened, and the Chinaman had a small strongbox under his arm. Strength born of love then possessed me, and I closed with the heathen in a struggle that lasted for some minutes. Then I felt my strength desert me; the earth seemed to cave in and crumble all around me and [paper will here appear to have been torn.] Episode 2: "The Cryptic Ring" Elaine becomes the innocent purchaser of a cryptic ring stolen from Wu Fang, for the possession of which this desperate heathen will commit murder many times over. The ring is the key to the hidden millions of the late Perry Bennett, alias Clutching Hand, whose sudden death has left the whereabouts of his tremendous fortune a mystery. Wu Fang seeing the ring on Elaine's finger, decides she is the thief, and in an attempt to recover it, lures her to his rooms, where, but for the timely arrival of her lover and protector, Craig Kennedy, she would have met a horrible death. To make good his escape, Wu Fang has to walk a tight-rope over the yawning chasm between two city skyscrapers, and once over, severs the cable on which Kennedy, hand over hand, is following. However, Kennedy is spared to us for many another hair-raising episode, and Elaine, still ignorant of its value, holds the mysterious cryptic ring. Episode 3: "The Watching Eye" In Wu Fang and Long Sin, Craig Kennedy seems to have found an opposition worthy of his tempered metal. With Blaine kidnapped, and no clue to work on but a meaningless cryptic ring, the great scientific detective feels the necessity for his most concentrated thought. Aunt Josephine is the recipient of a huge vase, at the bottom of which Kennedy finds a note from Elaine, saying that she is as yet unharmed, and instructing him, if he would save her, to deliver the cryptic ring that night in an appointed place. Kennedy forges a ring the counterpart of the original, hoping thereby to trick the crafty Chinamen, but out from the side of the gigantic vase peers the crafty eye of the artful heathen, and unknown to him, Kennedy's plans are blighted in the making. Events then follow quickly. Kennedy in trying to double-cross the Tongs, is himself checkmated, and barely escapes with his life when he goes to barter the fake ring for Elaine. The ring, however, proves the "Open Sesame" to the underground treasure vault of the late Clutching Hand, although a small comfort in consideration of Elaine's probable fate. Episode 4: "The Vengeance of Wu Fang" With Elaine in his power, Wu Fang decides on a vengeance more fiendish than he had ever before contemplated. He releases Elaine, telling her that her ultimate punishment will be more frightful than any bodily injury he can now enact. Slowly, and one by one, he tells her, her dearest friends will die, while she will live on in dread apprehension of a fate that will ultimately overtake her. He then places an African Tick, an insect, whose bite means certain death by a lingering fever, in the 'phone receiver in Kennedy's laboratory. Two fake calls are enough to infect both Jameson and Kennedy, and the malignant fever is working in their blood. A specialist is called in who recognizes the symptoms, and prepares the only drug known to counteract this fatal fever. Wu Fang, seeing that he is about to be foiled, intercepts the specialist's message for a nurse, and sends instead a woman of the underworld to carry out his design. This is to infect whatever instruments the doctors are going to use on Kennedy and Jameson, with a virulent poison. His second failure he must needs credit to Elaine, who, arriving at Kennedy's apartment, and seeing Weepy Mary in the guise of a nurse, immediately denounces her to the company as a notorious criminal. Weepy Mary makes her escape in the excitement, and Elaine is installed as nurse of the men to whom she owes her life many times over. Episode 5: "The Saving Circles" A new ally of Wu Fang, the serpent, is an aviator in his plane circling ominously above Craig Kennedy's house. Balanced in the reckless flyer's palm is a bomb of Trodite, the new super-force in explosives. The bird-man looks for a painted circle as the prearranged target for his agent of destruction. He sees it. Straight to the mark goes the infernal death dealer. A startling white flash, a million splinters, an unrecognizable body, and far off on the horizon the fast fading outline of the modern bird of prey. Tense, expectant, shocked, but ultimately triumphant, the detective who harnesses Science in his pursuit of Crime stands watching at the window of his laboratory. He knew about the aeroplane; he knew that the Government had been robbed of the ultra powerful Trodite; he knew of the large white circle that was to mark his house as the object of attack. He knew also that directly across the court one of Wu Fang's henchmen was spying upon him. That's why, in the dead of night, he and his assistant Jameson ascended to the roof where they scrubbed out the fateful circle. That's why they ever so quietly ascended to the roof of the house directly across the court and painted thereon a large white circle the counterpart of the one recently scrubbed off, and that's why, when the detonation came, the fragments of what was once a Chinaman mixed with the fragments of what was once a house, and left Craig Kennedy shaken, but sound. Did you ever see an aeroplane high in the heavens get hit with a steel jacketed shell projected from an armored automobile? Did you ever see a death duel between a terror of the skies and a gun constructed especially to bring it down? Here you see the aeroplane get hit, shiver as though in startled hesitation, make a final desperate struggle to keep afloat, and finally descend in circles, fluttering helpless, like a wounded bird, to the ground. These are some of the awe-inspiring incidents to be seen in this episode. Episode 6: "Spontaneous Combustion" His constant failure to accomplish the death of both Elaine and her protector, Craig Kennedy, makes Wu Fang only the more persistent. Money means nothing to him. His enormous wealth enables him to carry out the most elaborate plans for the death of the hated detective and his fair-haired sweetheart. His followers know no word other than their masters, and his Oriental craftiness enables him to keep well out of the law's reach. He secures a corrupt young girl to help him carry out a plot as fiendish as it is intricate. A fake attack on the girl in front of Elaine's window is excuse for the girl's sad story, which so touches Elaine and her aunt that they take her into their service. Acting on the chemical principle of spontaneous combustion, Wu Fang rigs up a trick chair to hold fast whoever sits in it, and eventually burn its occupant to death. This chair is shipped to the Dodge home, where the new maid receives it and has it put up in the garret, knowing that Elaine will go there shortly to make a selection of her dresses for a charity gift. Meanwhile, Kennedy learns of the joint in which Wu Fang hides himself from the outer world, and disguised as a heathen goes there to smoke a pipe. How he is tricked by the cunning Wu Fang, how he learns of Elaine's imminent peril, how he manages to outwit the crafty Celestial, and rescue Elaine from the most frightful death, is all so graphically pictured on the screen that a word description fails utterly in its purpose. Episode 7: "The Ear in the Wall" Wu Fang, the Chinese master criminal, knows the charm of Elaine, and knows also the danger of her ready wit. He sends her a box of roses, half white and half red, with a fiendish note attached giving her a choice as to who shall die first, Craig Kennedy, or her Aunt Josephine. Elaine is terror-stricken, but Kennedy, all unknown to her, flashes the red roses in the window, as the signal that they have chosen his life as the first to be attempted. The signal is noted and the deadly machinery of Wu Fang set in motion. Kennedy prepares for what he knows will be an ingenious attack. He sprays his hall-mat directly outside his door with a fluid that will photograph whosoever's foot steps on it. Wu Fang, by means of a method of wiring, connects a detectaphone between Kennedy's room and the cellar, where, with bis henchmen, he hears Kennedy's 'phone instructions to police headquarters, ordering a raid on Long Sin and Innocent Inez, the demi-monde. Wu Fang communicates with Long Sin in time to forestall the police, who, when they arrive, find an empty apartment. Kennedy knows that his instructions must have been overheard, so, using a galvaniscope he detects the wiring in the hall, and knows that Wu Fang is listening at the other end of the wire, somewhere nearby. The super-grip of this episode is in how he tricks the wily Oriental at his own game. It's too good to give away in the synopsis. Episode 8: "The Opium Smugglers" Wu Fang, the serpent, kidnaps Elaine's chauffeur, and substitutes in his place one of his henchmen. Craig Kennedy, disguised, searching Chinatown for a trace of Wu Fang, is met by Capt. Brainerd, of the U.S. Secret Service. Brainerd is trying to locate a band of opium smugglers who are going to "pull off a trick" that night. Kennedy points out a passing Chinaman who he knows keeps an opium joint. Together they track him to a dingy apartment, where they find and overpower three Chinamen receiving messages via carrier pigeons from the captain of a tramp sloop. They learn where the sloop is lying, and start out in a revenue cutter to apprehend it. Meanwhile, Wu Fang, through his underling the chauffeur, kidnaps Elaine, whom he intends to slip abroad the smuggler's sloop for shipment to Shanghai, where she is to be sold. The opium is unloaded, and Elaine carried to the ship. Kennedy, Brainerd, and Jameson, after a sharp fight, capture the Chinamen guarding the opium and load the stuff into their boat, before starting to run down the smuggler's ship. Elaine, aboard ship, uses the wireless telephone Kennedy has provided her with, and apprises him of her predicament. She flashes a lantern from the porthole, and Kennedy's boat makes for it. She flees from the Oriental set to guard her and climbs a rope ladder to the dizzy height of the topmast. He follows, a knife in his teeth. She makes a startling leap into the dark waters and he after her. It is a race for life in the fathomless ocean, with the Chinaman gaining at every stroke. He overtakes her and is about to strike when a shot from the racing revenue cutter kills him. Elaine is rescued, and the smuggler's ship captured. Episode 9: "The Tell-Tale Heart" Jameson, Kennedy's assistant, follows Innocent Inez, one of Wu Fang's confederates, to her apartment where he attempts to question her. She touches a knob in the table carvings and an iron bar swings out from the wall behind Jameson and knocks him unconscious. Inez then sends a gypsy confederate to tell Elaine's fortune, and to incidentally bind Elaine's eyes with a handkerchief holding in its seam a vial containing a spark of radium. Inez has been instructed by Wu Fang that the proximity of the radium to Elaine's eyes for three minutes will be sufficient to blind her. Kennedy, informed previously by 'phone of Jameson's destination, follows him and when he arrives is assaulted in the same way as was his assistant. Jameson's glove on the floor attracts his attention and he stoops to pick it up just as the murderous bar swings out from the wall to strike him. Inez is overpowered and Jameson is found. A 'phone message to Inez from Wu Fang reveals Elaine's peril, and Kennedy and Jameson arrive at the Dodge home. They are relieved to discover that Elaine, in binding her eyes, substituted her own handkerchief for the one furnished by the gypsy. Inez is taken to Kennedy's laboratory, where the sphygmograph is applied while Kennedy repeats certain house numbers in the Chinatown district. Wu Fang is known to live in that vicinity and Kennedy realizes that when his house number is repeated, it will cause a quicker pulsation of Inez's blood. Wu Fang, knowing of Inez's predicament, makes a sensational rescue, but Kennedy "has his number," and the next episode promises thrilling situations. Episode 10: "Shadows of War" Wu Fang is approached by secret agents who commission him to secure at any price the model torpedo invented by Craig Kennedy, and in the possession of the United States Government. Wu Fang sets his machinery in motion and awaits results. In the meantime Kennedy, apprised by his agents of Wu Fang's hiding place, goes there with Jameson and by a piece of remarkable strategy, succeeds in capturing him. Wu Fang is wounded and taken to a hospital, where he manages to substitute another Oriental in his place and makes his escape. He meets his henchman coming in from Washington with the stolen torpedo model. The only other model in existence is one in Kennedy's possession, Kennedy is demonstrating its use in a fountain in the Dodge Conservatory. A momentary distraction gives Wu Fang's lieutenant opportunity to steal this model. He starts away with it, but is seen by the butler, who gives chase. Seeing he is likely to be apprehended, he quickly hides the torpedo model in a large flower-pot, and escapes, wounded to a waiting automobile. Kennedy commandeers another car, and follows. In the enthralling game of wits that follows Wu Fang is killed and the whereabouts of Kennedy becomes a matter of serious conjecture. END
- It is an unfortunate day for John Hadley when he protects Doris Jackson from the unwelcome advances of the boss's son, for it results in his discharge. It is doubly unfortunate as Hadley is a married man with an infant daughter, Janet. Not satisfied with discharging Hadley, the vengeful boss succeeds in preventing him from securing other employment. Matters go from bad to worse until at last starvation stares the little family in the face. Driven at last to desperation, Hadley finds himself at the docks where the waters of the swiftly flowing river seems to suggest a way out of his difficulties. Plunging blindly off the end of the pier, he lands in a rowboat which at that moment comes from under the pier. In it are three river pirates who think that Hadley is spying on them. They capture him and take him to a nearby yacht which is owned by J. Harvey Hall, the leader of a band of crooks, who demands that Hadley join them. Upon his refusal, Hadley is set adrift near the South African coast to prevent him from "peaching." He is captured by a band of Mayas on the Santos Islands and is doomed to die. They bedeck him with precious jewels and prepare to offer him up as a living sacrifice to their gods. Watching his chance he makes a break and succeeds in escaping. He attracts the attention of an exploring party and returns to civilization. He realizes a large sum by selling the jewels and institutes a search for his wife and child. By chance he locates his wife in a hospital where she has been taken when found exhausted in the street. His daughter, however, cannot be found, she having been adopted by Hall, who finds her on his doorstep. Eighteen years elapse. Janet has become an inventive genius and perfects a safe opening device. One night, Hall, who has concealed his real identity from her, persuades Janet to try to open a jeweler's safe, pretending that it belongs to a friend. She succeeds in opening it, but the police have been tipped off and raid the office where Hall and his pals are gathered. Hall is killed, but Janet escapes. Grief-stricken by the revelation of Hall's true character, she returns home where she learns that he is not her father. Detective Baggett arrives too late to intercept her. He searches the house and finds a record of Janet's adoption by Hall. Hadley advertises for news of his long-lost daughter. The detective, reading the advertisement, thinks he has a clew in the papers which he found and starts a search for Janet. Baggett picks up her trail, which leads to Hadley's home. Meeting Hadley and his wife outside, they enter and see Janet, who, by a strange coincidence, has taken a position as governess to the Hadley's adopted daughter, in front of the safe endeavoring to open it. As the doors of the safe swing open they rush forward only to see Janet reach in and take out a small kitten which had been locked in by Hadley's adopted daughter. Recognizing the detective, Janet attempts to escape but is held by him. Great is the surprise when he produces the secret papers and proves to the Hadleys that their governess was in reality their long lost daughter.
- Simeon Gold, editor of "The Vampire," a scandal weekly, is seated in his office. Madeline Grey, a pretty young matron, enters. She has been summoned by Gold, who has in his possession some indecent letters she wrote to another man, prior to her marriage. Gold demands a large sum of money for them, under threat of publishing them. She is unable to secure the money and, terrified, writes to Beatrice Fairfax for advice. Beatrice shows the letter to Jimmy Barton, and they decide to go together to Mrs. Gold's home and from her learn her story. Jimmy later calls on Gold under pretext of interviewing him for his paper. The only information he gets from the blackmailer is that he keeps all of his private papers in his bedroom. Jimmy watches the Gold home and forms the acquaintance of the vegetable man. By a liberal use of money the vegetable man consents to let Jimmy take his place. Thus disguised. Jimmy gains access to the Gold kitchen and makes love to the maid. She is baking a pie, and while her back is turned, Jimmy secures an impression of the key to the kitchen door in a piece of dough. That night Jimmy, learning that all of the Gold household is out, visits the house. Beatrice, despite his protests, accompanies him. They have assured Mrs. Grey that her letters will be returned to her within a few hours. Meantime Gold again visits her. He demands the money. In her eagerness to ward him off she declares she will have the letters within a short time despite him. Gold, alarmed by the threat, hurries home. There is a light in his bedroom. Taking his chauffeur with him, he hurries there and surprises Beatrice. She and Jimmy have just located the Grey letters in the hall safe, but have not secured them. Beatrice pretends she is a friend of Mrs. Grey. Gold backs her into an adjoining room and leaves the chauffeur to guard her. Then returning to the bedroom, he takes the letters from the safe. Jimmy is hiding behind a curtain and when Gold turns, he finds himself looking into the muzzle of a revolver. Before he can move, Jimmy deals him a blow that renders him unconscious and secures the letters. Beatrice and the chauffeur in the next room hear him fall. The chauffeur rushes to his side, but also finds a revolver at his head. The maid, who has returned, enters the room, sees Jimmy and collapses as she exclaims: "It's the vegetable man.'' With the letters, Jimmy and Beatrice back out of the room and escape. They hurry to Mrs. Grey, who burns the letters as the episode ends.
- The genial confidence men assume the roles of "business doctors, sick and dying enterprises cured while you wait." The eggbeater concern of one Pushman is the patient, but the reason for their interest is a selfish one. Pushman is heavily indebted to G.W. Slookum, who threatens to close the place, and Slookum was a member of the criminal clique, who ruined the father of the Warden girls. The enterprise suddenly becomes Pushman, Inc., Kitchen Utensils, and old Slookum, who becomes intensely interested, receives his money. Lots of loud talk of big money and the open books of the concern, left where Slookum gets a chance to see them, causes him to free himself from the tidy sum of $45,000, just the amount he extracted from old man Warden. Meanwhile, Toad Jessup has a little trouble with Slookum over some apples which the latter thought he has stolen, but when he proves his innocence before the town constable, Slookum's cup of woe is filled. The last he sees of Wallingford and Co. and his roll is when they take the first train out of town.
- Jane Hamlin's father, a wealthy inventor, has just died and the young woman is going over his private papers. She finds a note addressed to her, which reads: "Open the safe and drop its contents into the ocean. Do not touch the third button. The machine is loaded with poison gas." She opens the safe and draws forth an infernal machine. As she does so, her fiancé, Clayton Boyd, enters. He has a handsome face, but it displays weakness of character. They sit conversing in the dark room far into the night. The scene changes and shows the interior of a room occupied by a gang of anarchists. They had tried to secure Hamlin's invention before his death and now plot to steal it. One of their number, Sverdrup, is delighted to commit crime. As Jane and her fiancé are talking in the dark room, they see Sverdrup at the window. As he jimmies it and enters, they hide behind a couch. Covering the anarchist with a revolver, Boyd compels him to throw up his hands. Jane switches on the lights and leaves the room to phone the police. When she is gone, the anarchist offers Boyd $1,000 to free him and help him get the "only perfect infernal machine." He accepts, allows the anarchist to escape and then throws himself on the floor. When Jane and the police arrive he feigns unconsciousness and as he recovers, claims the burglar beat him over the head. The police doubt his story and leave in disgust. Jane is greatly troubled and writes to Beatrice Fairfax for advice. Meantime, Boyd and the anarchist lay the plot to secure the infernal machine. Boyd makes up as the ghost of Jane's father. That night he gains entrance to the Hamlin house, and as the ghost, tells Jane to give his secret to the man she loves. Jane falls in a faint. Beatrice and Jimmy visit her the following day. After Jane has told her story, Beatrice agrees to spend the night with her. Jimmy has been shadowing Boyd and late that night follows him and the anarchist to the Hamlin house. He sees them go to the roof through an adjoining vacant house, sees Boyd disguise himself as Hamlin, wind a sheet about himself, and descend through the trap door to the Hamlin house. Sverdrup has been left on guard and Jimmy overpowers him. Then, winding a sheet about himself, Jimmy descends, too. Boyd appears before Jane and frightens her almost to death. As he is talking to her, he hears a noise behind him. He turns to confront another ghost, and almost collapses himself from fright. Jimmy drops his sheet and covers Boyd with a revolver. But Sverdrup has recovered and enters behind Jimmy. He is about to deal him a blow over the head when Beatrice, emerging from the room adjoining that of Jane, fires from the doorway and drops the anarchist. Jimmy then tears the sheet from Boyd and strips from his lips his false moustache, revealing him in his true character. Two policemen summoned by Jimmy take away the plotters and Jane takes Jimmy and Beatrice to the library to show them the infernal machine. As they are examining it, other members of the gang surprise them, compel them to surrender the infernal machine, and escape. As Beatrice scolds Jimmy for his carelessness he explains: "Don't worry. I pressed the third button."
- The confidence men assume the roles of detectives and try their hand at relieving the town of Spanglerville, which was mixed up in the death and ruination of the father of the Warden girls, from some of the contents of the exchequer. This little town harbors one Henry Closby, a man of mystery, who has patented a clay image called the "Lost Dog," the royalties on which net him a handsome sum every year. On arriving at the only hostelry in town, they register as "Mr. Scotland Yard" and "Mr. S. Holmes." They tell the innkeeper that they are on the trail of a mysterious man, and learn of Closby. The latter aids them in their efforts to hoodwink the town. With the judicious use of the "sneakograph" and "sleuthophone," they give the rubes an exhibition of the latest devices for the detection of crime. So interested are the townspeople in the exhibition that they buy another "invention" of this Closby for the sum of $60,000, just enough to cover the sum stolen from old man Warden.
- Violet and Fanny Warden's father was ruined by a group of unethical businessmen. J. Rufus Wallingford and his associate Blackie Daw are enlisted to help the girls avenge their father's undoing. Target number one is a businessman named Falls who sells portable houses. Wallingofrd invests in Falls' company and gains his confidence. A farmer arrives and orders a house contingent on some improvements. Wallingford happens to own the patents on such items and sells them to Falls for $125,000. As the house is completed Onion Jones (another Wallingford associate) arrives and claims he owns the patents. He attaches the house and Falls' business for patent infringement. Falls is ruined and it is discovered that the farmer is none other than Blackie Daw; the farmer's daughters are in reality the Warden girls.
- Beatrice Fairfax receives a letter signed Robert Wells, who writes: "Is there any way an honest man can prevent his girl from falling in love with a fascinating foreigner?" At Jimmy Barton's request the letter is handed to him, for he knows Bob. Jimmy visits Bob at his office and finds him much excited over the attention paid to his fiancée, Martha Ainsley, by Andre Versale. A scene shows Versale calling upon Miss Ainsley. He is a fortune hunter and has established an accomplice in the Ainsley home as Martha's maid. Versale urges Martha to elope with him from a masque ball that is to be held at the Ainsley home on the following night. Jimmy and Beatrice secure cards to the ball from Bob, who also furnishes them with a description of the costumes to be worn by Versale and Martha. On the night of the ball the two men and the two women, their faces covered by masks, look exactly alike. Versale mistakes Beatrice for Martha and urges her to elope. She agrees. He tells her he will go to her room and instruct the maid to prepare for the trip, taking all her jewels with her. Beatrice tells Jimmy and then detains Versale. Jimmy goes to the room, but after the jewels are in a handbag, the maid becomes suspicious and tears off Jimmy's mask. She sees she has been imposed upon, but Jimmy overpowers her and takes the bag with the jewels. He hurries downstairs and gives the bag to Beatrice. Versale has completed all his arrangements. Jimmy leaves Beatrice a moment. While he is gone, Versale, believing Beatrice to be Martha, carries her bodily, despite her struggles, into a waiting automobile. When Jimmy gets back he is amazed to find Martha instead of Beatrice, and Beatrice, the jewels and Versale gone. He tells Martha of Versale's duplicity. Accompanied by Bob, they jump into a high-power automobile and start in pursuit of Versale and Beatrice. A wild ride follows. Just at dawn, they come within sight of Versale's car. He starts shooting at them. Bob, who is driving, puts on the greatest speed and the car dashes alongside that of Versale, just as the adventurer puts a bullet into the front tire of Bob's car. As it explodes, Jimmy leaps from the running board into the flying automobile. A battle follows. Jimmy finally compels Versale to drop the revolver. Beatrice picks it up and as Jimmy overpowers Versale, she covers the chauffeur and orders him to stop. The two prisoners are bound and Jimmy turns over the jewels to Martha. She weeps on Bob's shoulder and promises him she will never flirt again. While Bob takes Martha home and policemen take charge of Versale and the chauffeur, Jimmy and Beatrice hurry to the office, where they write the story of their night's experience.
- Billy is a fourteen-year-old messenger boy. When he is not delivering messages, he is learning telegraphy. He delivers a telegram to Judge Richard Morton, from the warden of Sing Sing. It reads: "Peter Raven escaped. Thought to be headed for New York." Peter Raven is a desperate criminal. A scene shows Judge Morton sentencing him. Raven creates a disturbance in court and declares that his first act when he is free will be to kill the Judge. While Billy is waiting for an answer to the telegram he encounters Judge Morton's daughter, Jean, aged twelve, in the hallway and falls in love with her. They are having a delightful conversation, when Jean's governess, Mme. Laurette, carries her off. Billy, with his first love sorrow, writes a letter to Beatrice Fairfax, asking for advice. Beatrice receives it just as Jimmy Barton, star reporter, is started out on the story of the escape of Peter Raven. Jean writes a playful note to Billy, calling him her knight, and asking him to save her from an imaginary ogre, her governess. Little does she know that the woman is a villainess. As Jean dispatched the note, Mme. Laurette receives a check for a trunk. She is the wife of Raven. She hurries to the Pennsylvania Station, where she receives the trunk and takes it to her home. Inside is Raven. They plan to kidnap Jean. Meantime Jimmy Barton, who has been sleuthing, discovers that Raven has come to New York. He starts to trace the final destination of the trunk, Billy has received Jean's playful note and hurries to her home. When he arrives he observes suspicious actions between an alleged blind man and the governess. The latter, with a thimble on her finger, begins tapping on the window pane. Billy's quick ear detects the Morse code. She is sending the blind man a message regarding the plans for kidnapping. Billy notifies Beatrice. The kidnapping plan is to steal Jean while she is taking her automobile for a ride with the governess. Jean and lime, Laurette come out of the house and enter the automobile. The kidnappers follow in another car. Billy, desperate at the delay of Beatrice, hangs on the steps of the kidnappers' machine. When a lonely spot in the country is reached, the kidnappers pretend to have a breakdown and they hail the car containing the governess and Jean. When it stops they overpower the chauffeur, drug the child and escape with Billy still clinging to the step. In the flight Billy is thrown from the car, but Beatrice soon appears and picks him up. They follow the kidnappers to a shack at the river's edge and burst in upon them just as little Jean is recovering consciousness. The kidnappers then throw Jean out of the window and into the stream below, but she is rescued by Billy. Jimmy and two detectives row across the river to the kidnappers' house. With the detectives following, Jimmy burst into the room. Beatrice is rescued and Raven, Mme. Laurette and the other kidnappers overpowered. Beatrice, Jimmy and Billy take Jean home. When the Judge and his wife learn of Billy's bravery, they promise that someday when the children are older, and Billy is earning more money, they will entertain the proposition that they wed. Jimmy and Beatrice hurry back to their office with another good story.