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- Justice Department agent Quentin Locke must investigate a powerful cartel protected by a robot (here referred to as "The Automaton") and using a gas weapon "The Madagascar Madness".
- While touring India, noted English criminologist Richard Duvall saves the life of a Buddhist priest who rewards him with the presentation of a wonderful crystal globe. By gazing in it the priest demonstrates that Duvall can fall into a cataleptic state and his astral body is released and is free to roam at will. Leaving the temple, Duvall collides with Grace Ellicott, who is touring the Far East with her aunt, the Countess D'Este and the Count. A mutual admiration between Grace and Duvall results from the accidental meeting. Later, in England, the mistress of Count D'Este makes financial demands which he cannot meet. With his housekeeper, Mrs. Cooke, he plans to put his wife out of the way and thus obtain her fortune. Poison is put in candy which the Countess eats. Her sudden death arouses the suspicion of her niece. On his return to England, Duvall experiments with the magic globe. He is surprised and pleased to see the face of the girl he met in India. Further experiments, while in the cataleptic state, discloses part of the plot that resulted in the death of Grace's aunt, which has cheated her out of the fortune. Duvall seeks out Grace to explain his strange experiments. She tells him that previous to the death of the Countess she had seen her will and that the entire fortune, which included one million dollars in cash, was to be left to her. But after the suspicious death of the Countess, Grace is puzzled when the Count produces a new will in which he is named the sole beneficiary. Duvall succeeds in having his East Indian servant, Purtab Gar, secure a position in the Count's home. Then he proceeds to unravel the mystery and at the same time recover the one million dollars for Grace. Count D'Este is driven to distraction by finding, everywhere he turns in his home, cards that read: "I want One Million Dollars. Victor Gerard." Disguised as "Victor Gerard," Duvall pays a visit to the Count. He insists that the one million dollars be ready for him at midnight, when he will call again. D'Este notifies the police and the chief calls in Duvall to assist in solving the mystery and apprehending "Gerard." Duval outlines a plan in which the Count is directed to have the money ready as demanded. He assures him the premises will be well protected and that "Gerard" cannot escape. "Gerard" arrives at the appointed time and mysteriously disappears, together with the money, as the police close in. Duvall walks out of a room where they think they have "Gerard" trapped. Count D'Este accuses Grace of stealing the money and attempts to strangle her when Purtab Gar saves her. Duvall succeeds in obtaining a confession of the murder from the housekeeper, when he traps her as she is attempting to poison Grace. Duvall explains everything to the mystified police. D'Este is carried off under arrest and Grace and Duvall are left happily together.
- Unknown to his daughter Jacqueline, Miles Allen, in the guise of a fisherman, smuggles silk and fur into the country. Customs officer John Lang comes to investigate, and he and Jacqueline quickly fall in love. Ward Jennings, the owner of Miles' boat, also loves her, but Miles refuses to let him marry her, so Ward gets revenge by revealing Miles' smuggling operation to Coast Guard officers, who kill Miles in a struggle at his home. Jacqueline mistakenly blames John for her father's death and goes to Ward for help. She then learns the truth about Ward; they fight on a cliff-top and he falls to his death. John comes to comfort Jacqueline, and they begin making plans for their life together.
- Leaving his wife Rose for a few weeks and eager to do research for his new novel about the elderly, Henry Norman goes to live in a home for the aged, where Blossom, the home's young maid, falls in love with him. When she lets him know how she feels, however, Henry tells her that he has a wife. When his research is over, he returns to her--and discovers that she has eloped with his friend Perry Westley, and that they were both killed by a lightning bolt that struck Perry's car. While Henry recovers from this double shock, Blossom quits her job and finds work at God's Half Acre, an orphanage. While on a picnic with the children, she once again meets Henry, who realizes that he loves Blossom. They marry.
- Before the guests arrive for a party in her apartment, Agnes Lambert, a writer of unsalable fiction, starts revising one of her stories because she realizes that it lacks drama and emotion. Later, she begins a romance with Tom Leighton, but although Tom loves her, he is already engaged to Ruth Beresford, who was recently blinded in an explosion. Aware of the impossibility of their affair, Agnes decides to commit suicide, but when Ruth, whose vision has been restored by an operation, discovers that Tom no longer loves her, she frees him to marry his new sweetheart. Tom goes to Agnes, but arrives too late, and finds her dead. Then, guests knock at Agnes' door, ready for a party, and, having just finished revising a story in which she stars as a woman who commits suicide because she wrongly believes that a love affair has failed, Agnes rises from her typewriter to greet them.
- John Wheeler, a traction magnate, becomes heavily involved and is obliged to sell a large timber tract he owns in the Hudson Bay district. He owns the property jointly with Henri Corteau, and the deed is filed in the office of Magistrate Le Blanc, at Chalet. Bruce Mitchell, a wealthy young man about town, who is infatuated with Lois Wheeler, the madcap daughter of Wheeler, readily agrees to take over the property. In the northland the elder Corteau has died suddenly, and the Magistrate's office, together with the Wheeler-Corteau deed, is destroyed by fire. The Magistrate receives word of the transfer between Wheeler and Mitchell and he sends for Jean Corteau, the son and heir of the late Henri Corteau, and asks him for the deed his father held, telling him he wishes to make a copy of it. When he adds that it is the only copy in existence, Jean walks out, saying he intends to keep the land himself. Meantime Mitchell has pressed his suit for the hand of Lois, and she takes a violent dislike to him. She resents it because he tries to make plain that her father is under obligations to him. Soon afterward Mitchell goes to Wheeler and wants to know why the deed has not arrived. Wheeler hopelessly shows him a letter from the Magistrate, telling of Jean's action. Mitchell threatens to jail Wheeler, accusing him of obtaining money under false pretenses. Lois overhears the threat and also Mitchell's offer to let the matter drop if Lois will marry him. Lois agrees to this proposal providing her father's innocence cannot be proved. Lois goes to the northland and seeks out Jean. He will not see her, saying he will not have any dealings with women. The next day she sets out, dressed in boy's clothes, on a dog sled for Jean's home in the forest. Pierre, a guide, accompanies her. They arrive in sight of Jean's cabin at nightfall, when Pierre attempts to force his attentions upon Lois. She flees and seeks refuge in Jean's cabin, stumbling in his door in a faint. Later, she tells Jean she has become lest from a lumber camp, and asks if she may remain a while with him. He tells her he has always wanted a boy companion and helper, and that since she came like a "wounded snowbird" to his cabin, she may stay. Although Jean is brutal and primitive in many ways Lois soon finds he has a gentle nature. The next day Jean discovers Lois is a girl, when her fair falls out from under her cap. She confesses her identity and he is angry. But he consents to her remaining, and he fetches some of his mother's clothes for her. Her one desire to get the deed is realized when she is dressing and finds the document hidden away behind a small mirror on the wall. That night she urges Jean to drink heavily, hoping to get away. He becomes fascinated with her and tells her he is going to save her father. He reaches for the deed and finds it gone. Her manner betrays Lois, and she confesses having the paper. Meanwhile Mitchell and Wheeler have come north in search of Lois. Pierre tells Mitchell she is living with Jean. In a jealous rage he goes to seek out Lois. He has Wheeler arrested and then sets out for Jean's cabin. Arrived there he sarcastically accuses Lois of a common liaison with Jean. Jean demands that Mitchell apologize. He refuses and they fight. Both are seriously wounded. Mitchell staggers out of the cabin in the snow. Lois, left with the unconscious Jean, decides to steal the deed and leave. On the edge of a cliff Lois sees Mitchell fall to his death. Then a vision of Jean left alone in his helpless condition comes to her. She turns back and joins Jean. She nurses him back to strength and they go to the aid of Wheeler, intending to marry and live in New York. But after they are wed they hearken to the call of the north, and go back to the life where their love was born.
- Upon finding out his faithless wife has died, millionaire Bide Bennington decides that it is time to return to New York from abroad. He arrives on Christmas Eve, and confronted by his desolate, empty home, decides to continue traveling across the continent. After he leaves, a robber breaks into Bennington's house and steals his fur coat and wallet. The burglar is then ambushed by thugs, who kill him and throw his body into the river. When the coat is found by the pier and Bennington is presumed dead, the thug's leader, Richard Glendon conceives a plan. Glendon approaches Constance Brent and threatens to expose her father, an escapee from a English prison, unless she impersonates Bennington's widow and claims the estate. To save her father, Constance reluctantly agrees, and when Bennington reads of his own suicide, he decides to return incognito and investigate. Impressed with Bennington's resemblance to the supposed dead man, Glendon enlists him in his scheme to collect the estate. Bennington gladly complies, outwits the crook and falls in love with Constance. When Constance receives word of her father's death, she confesses all to Bennington, and after Glendon's arrest, becomes Mrs. Bide Bennington in reality.
- William Baldwin, ruined in business by his partner John Blaisdell, implores Blaisdell's aid and receives in answer a five-dollar bill inscribed with "Spend this for a gun and use it on herself." Hopelessly, Baldwin and his daughter Nan go to the Yujon, where the father dies and Nan earns a living in a rough dance hall where as "Nightingale Nan" she is the miners' idol. When she discovers that the little claim on Bear Creek, the only thing her father has left her, is worthless, at first she collapses; then she becomes defiant and tells the miners who have been forcing their attentions upon her that they may have her, the lucky man to be the winner in a card-game, she to take the money won in the game and go away to seek fame and fortune. A bearded stranger wins the game with a pair of deuces and pays her $1,000 a card, and she leaves with him for her cabin. Once there, however, she repents her rash bargain, and implores him to release her, offering the money in return. He makes her sign an I.O.U. for herself, promising to pay the debt at any future time that he sees fit. "You'll win success," the stranger tells her, "but in the hour of your greatest triumph I shall claim you, and you must return." She leaves on this condition. Nan's voice wins success for her all over the world. Five years later, as Mlle. Nanon Boldini, she is the reigning operatic queen at La Scala, Milan, then comes to the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, to make her American debut in "Lucia di Lammermoor." Her success is instantaneous. Two of the most important patrons of the opera house, business rivals John Blaisdell and James Van Brunt, are united in their admiration of Mlle. Boldini, and obtain an introduction. When Nan discovers the identity of Blaisdell, the man who ruined her father, she quietly plans his downfall. She encourages his attention, even at the risk of displeasing a young stranger with whom she has fallen in love. She refuses an offer of marriage from the man who won her heart, telling him of her promise made under amazing conditions to a man in Alaska five years ago. That promise, she tells him, must be fulfilled, no matter how great the sacrifice she makes in doing so. Inviting Blaisdell to her apartment to dinner, she has a telephone connection so arranged that James Van Brunt, at his downtown office with the receiver at his ear, hears Blaisdell's answers to the carefully prepared questions Nan asks, betraying all his business secrets. As Blaisdell falls across the table in a drunken stupor, after having told everything, Nan's triumph is complete. It is at this moment that two fateful cards, the deuces with which the Alaskan won his game, are thrust under the door, and Nan falls fainting. The next day she prepares for her journey to the Northland, ready to pay the price of her five years' freedom. The man she loves insists on accompanying her. Going to her little cabin, she finds it sumptuously furnished. As she turns to her lover in surprise, he places on the table a crumpled "I.O.U." then tears it in two, giving her the pieces. As the realization slowly dawns on Nan that the man she has learned to love is the bearded stranger of so long ago, she fits the two pieces of the "I.O.U." back together, presents them to him, and creeps into the arms of her stranger-lover.
- Miriam Monroe and John Conrad are two young scientific workers who, independently of each other, have discovered a chemical called exonite. Miriam discovered it while searching for a cure for cancer, while Conrad used it as a basis for a powerful explosive. When Conrad points out to her that its use could bring about world peace, Miriam works with him to perfect the formula. After Miriam's father, the head of a great corporation, receives news that the country is threatened by war, he and his partner, Albert Bernard, consider exonite for government use but Conrad, still professing peace, refuses to give up his formula for the purposes of war. Miriam, refusing to take no for an answer, steals into the lab to procure the formula, where she finds Bernard, actually a German spy, attempting to obtain the chemical for his government. After a struggle, Bernard is captured by secret service agents, and Conrad agrees to give the formula to his country.
- When her mother, the operatic idol of Paris, takes her to the United States and dies, Cora goes to live with Marie, a model for artist George Garnier. Although George is engaged to wealthy Helen Van Brooks, who is in love with Carl Wilson, a club-man, George and Cora fall in love. When Cora discovers the engagement, however, she leaves and becomes an opera star. Years later, after breaking his engagement, George visits Cora again, causing Mrs. Van Brooks to entreat Cora to give up George. At a wild party, Cora allows Jose, her long-time admirer, to make love to her, which provokes George's disgust until Marie explains Cora's behavior. When Jose, alone with Cora, attacks her, George and Marie burst in to see Jose, hit by a wine cooler hurled by Cora, fall backward through a window, fall to the street and die. After they learn that Helen and Wilson have eloped, Cora and George are able to marry.
- A feud has existed between the McLanes and the Conovers in the Tennessee mountains for many years. "Two Gun Carter" leaves Texas after a shooting fray and arrives just in time to witness George Conover's death at the hands of Henry McLane. Carrying young Conover's body to his family, Carter is very moved by their grief that he agrees to become their adopted son and subsequently falls in love with Marian Conover. In an attempt to put an end to the feud, Carter suggests a duel between himself and Henry McLane, but Henry refuses, and so, to uphold his family honor, Tom McLane, the clan leader, accepts the challenge. In the midst of the match, news arrives that Henry has abducted Marian. Carter rushes off and rescues Marian just as Henry and his horse plunge over the edge of a cliff. Carter then demands that an end be put to the feud as he himself was a born McLane and now plans to marry Marian Conover.
- Herbert Grayson has timber holdings in a Southern state. One of his mills is burned, and he accuses Len Mathis, a young mountaineer. In trying to avoid arrest Len is killed, and old John Mathis, his father, swears to shoot Grayson or any member of his family on sight. His young daughter, Renie, makes the same vow. Grayson is anxious to gain control of lands owned by Mathis, Grayson's nephew, Eric Southard, volunteers to effect the purchase. On his arrival, he telegraphs his uncle, disclosing his identity to the station-agent, who loses no time in telling the bystanders. Eric starts for the home of Peets, his uncle's foreman, in the village "jitney," as Renie, rifle in hand, is walking across the hills to Hibbitsville to get cartridges. One of the tires of the automobile bursts, and Renie, thinking the noise that of a gun, creeps behind Eric and the chauffeur, who are mending the tire, and makes them throw up their hands. When they explain that the tires contain wind, she shoots one in order to prove it, and while the chauffeur is repairing the damage she and Eric sit by the roadside. She learns in the village that Eric is Grayson's nephew, and goes to Peets' cabin to avenge her brother. Trying to shoot through the window, she misses Eric, who returns her fire, and slightly wounds her. He carries Renie home, and she tells her father she has been wounded by dropping her own gun. Eric and Renie fall in love. John Mathis has promised Renie's hand in marriage to Bud Weaver, as soon as he earns the necessary $100 with which to set up housekeeping. Eric writes to his uncle, refusing to further his schemes in the mountains. Eric is summoned to the Mexican border with the National Guard. He promises Renie to return for her. Bud Weaver demands his bride, and old John, true to his promise, sets a date for the wedding. Eric, stricken with typhoid fever, has been sent back to New York to recuperate, but Renie, unable to read or write, cannot communicate with him. The night before the wedding Renie tries to run away, and discovered by her father, has to tell him the reason. Old John gives her her rifle and shows her the door. Renie goes to Peets' cabin to try to learn news of Eric, and Peets takes advantage of her loneliness. In the ensuing struggle, Renie's gun is fired, and Peets is killed. Some men who are passing break into the cabin and Renie is arrested charged with murder. In a New York hospital Eric is convalescent. He learns that Renie has shot Peets and that her trial will be held in a few days. Eric hurries to Hibbitsville and plans her defense. At the trial, the feud between the Grayson and the Mathis factions is brought out, making the case against Renie look serious, but Eric appeals to the sympathies of the mountaineers in her behalf, and the jury returns a verdict of "not guilty." Eric and Renie are married, and Grayson, having come to a realization of the needs of the mountaineers, begins a new regime of helpfulness among the hills.
- After Mr. Jefferson reads "Rip Van Winkle," Rip Van Winkle appears to him in a reverie as an idle young fellow whose wife labors at the washtub to make a scanty livelihood for their daughter Meenie and herself. Rip spent all the money he obtained in mortgaging his property to Derrick von Beekman, the wealthy money lender of the village of Fallen Waters, who has taken all of Rip's lands. The property was only mortgaged, but if it were sold to pay off this mortgage, it would sell for more than enough to pay off the loan on the land, and the balance would revert to Rip Van Winkle. Derrick von Beekman, being notified of this by his counselor, tries to get Rip to sign away all claims on the mortgages. To induce Rip to do this, he voluntarily lends him 16 pounds to be paid 20 years from the date, without interest. Rip is persuaded by von Beekman to accept the money and starts anew by standing treat to the whole village. Von Beekman tries to get Rip to sign away all his claims, but Rip places the document in his game bag and decides to think it over. Then he goes home to face his wife Gretchen and tries to make up for staying out all night in the mountains. He finds no one at home but the children. They come to him and ask him to make a boat for them. He does so. Having no sail to the boat, he thinks of the paper in his game bag, and places it on the mast. While sailing it in the tub, little Hendrik Vedder, son of innkeeper Nick Vedder, tells Rip there is writing on it. Rip reads the letter that Derrick von Beekman is trying to get him to sign, and finds out why Derrick was in such a hurry. Rip later attends a dance. Amid the frivolities, Rip's wife Gretchen catches him embracing one of the girls. She chases him through the house with a club, throwing chairs at him, and Rip and his dog Schneider make their exit and take to the mountains. A storm comes up in which little Meenie and little Hendrik are afraid of lightning. Hendrik tells Meenie the cause of the lightning, saying that Hendrik Hudson and his crew, who live in the mountains, produce the lightning and thunder by playing ten pins and Hendrik Hudson lighting his pipe. Rip, who is in the storm, returns home and, as his custom is, he throws his hat in the window, the children try to warn Rip that Gretchen is hiding, but he is caught by the ear and dragged into the house. Gretchen, while scolding him, takes from his game bag a flask of whiskey, which she puts in her pocket. Rip, in turn, steals the bottle from her apron. He swears that he will never drink again. Gretchen, pleased, goes to Meenie and tells her that her father has sworn off, but returns only to find that Rip has lied to her and is drinking the liquor. She takes the bottle from him, throws it out of the window, and demands that Rip leave the house never to return again. He and his dog Schneider go to the mountains. After long climbing, he misses his bottle and sends Schneider for it. Schneider returns to the house, finds Rip's bottle and brings it to him. Rip rewards Schneider by giving him the only crust of bread left in the game bag. Schneider becomes afraid of something and deserts Rip. Rip, looking for the cause of Schneider's fear, turns and sees a strange little being carrying a keg, clambering up the mountain side, who comes to him and in dumb language asks him to carry the keg up the mountain. Rip agrees to carry this for the strange being. Arriving at the home of Hendrik Hudson, Rip is induced to drink of the strange liquor in the keg, and falls into a long sleep which lasts for twenty years. Rip, thought to have been lost in the mountains and died, von Beekman importunes Rip's wife, who is now in poverty. Meenie, now a grown girl, is pursued by his nephew. Cockles, who insults her. Young Henderick Vedder avenges the insult, by knocking Cockles down. Nick Vedder, now old and feeble, realizing that the end is near, betroths Meenie and Henderick. Von Beekman, at the punishment of his nephew, tells Gretchen that he is going to turn Nick Vedder and his family into the street. He goes to the inn, but is stopped from entering by Meenie, who tells him that Nick has passed away. Henderick, who cannot make the inn pay, decides to go with his uncle on a whaling voyage. He leaves Meenie heartbroken, and departs on the whaling boat. After a time the ship is wrecked and Henderick is cast on an island from which he is eventually rescued. Von Beekman and Cockles force themselves on Meenie and Gretchen. Gretchen finally decides to marry von Beekman to gain wealth. Upon hearing the news of Hendrik's death, she is fatally stricken. Time passes and Rip is still in slumberland. Cockles, still anxious to marry Meenie, urges his uncle to force her into marriage. Meanwhile Hendrik thinks that his child sweetheart is still waiting for him. Rip has now awakened from his slumber and finds everything changed. He cannot realize that he has been asleep but for one night. He returns to the village of Fallen Waters. On making inquiries, he is told that Meenie is to be married to Cockles. When he explains that he is Rip Van Winkle, he is looked upon as a crazy hermit. The wedding is about to take place. Henderick returns in time to prevent the marriage. Knocking Cockles down, he seizes Meenie and rushes from the church. On the way home they see an old man. Having compassion on him, they hurry him home. He realizes where he is and explains that he once had a little girl Meenie, and that he is Rip Van Winkle. Meenie tells him that she is Meenie Van Winkle and that her father went away twenty years ago and never returned. Rip looks into her face and recognizes his daughter. In the meantime, the people from the church have come to the house and attempt to come in. Henderick holds them back, but Rip, remembering the paper von Beekman wanted him to sign, tells Henderick to let him in. The paper proves that the property belongs to Rip. Cockles and Derrick both realize that they have lost everything, as Rip orders them from the house. The crowd, learning that Derrick has caused Rip's trouble, stone the two villains from the village. Meenie offers her father a stimulant, but he refuses at first but finally consents to drink his famous toast: "Here's to your health and your family; may they live long and prosper." The scene fades from this happy reunion to Mr. Jefferson finishing the works of his beloved father.
- After a brief courtship, Louise Joyce is married to her employer, architect Mortimer Grierson, who soon tires of her and begins to see other women. One night, he comes home drunk and informs Louise that the marriage was a fraud, actually only a mock ceremony arranged by Grierson's nephew Howard Hayes, then deserts her for good. Louise becomes an artist's model, and while working she meets Paul Vivian, a protégé of her husband, and the two fall in love. Grierson discovers their relationship and tells Paul that Louise was his mistress. Soon after, Grierson is mortally wounded by one of his lovers and Howard returns from Mexico to visit his uncle's deathbed. As Grierson instructs Howard to put his affairs in order, Howard confesses that Louise's marriage is legal because in an effort to spite his uncle, he secured a real minister to perform the ceremony. After Grierson's death, Paul finds Louise and learns the true story, and together they begin a new life.
- Rich, spoiled social butterfly Pamela Sayre lives the good life with her two maiden aunts. Bertie Holden, the somewhat slacker son of a wealthy couple, is in love with Pamela, who seems to prefer muscular, daredevil-type men, which Bertie definitely isn't. Pamela flirts with the wealthy but much older Charles Van Gordon in order to make Bertie jealous, but her plan seems to backfire.
- Success and failure meet in the persons of Edwin Rowley and Stephen Hunt, college chums. Rowley has marked ability as a playwright, but he is a visionary, and has not the commercial instinct necessary to market his wares. Hunt is a prosperous theatrical manager. Hunt's wife is ambitious for him to be known not only as a manager but as a dramatist. She urges him to try his powers in that direction. He promises to try, and she tells a reporter, who calls for an interview, that her husband is engaged in writing a great play. An item to this effect appears in the paper. Rowley, meantime, has finished a play which is a masterpiece. Noticing the item in the paper, his wife suggests that he go to Hunt for advice about his play. Hunt welcomes the impecunious Rowley, who tells him of his struggles for recognition. Hunt says he will be glad to read the play. Rowley leaves his precious manuscript with him. Hunt makes him a loan to tide him over his immediate difficulties, and the money is spent at once for necessities for his wife and little boy, Edwin. Hunt takes Rowley's play home and upon reading it recognizes it as a work of genius. When he has finished reading it, overwhelmed by its gripping power, he is irresistibly tempted to steal the play and present it as his own, knowing that he is safeguarded by the fact that Rowley has no copy. He begins copying the manuscript, only changing the title. After anxious days of waiting to hear from Hunt, Rowley goes again to the manager's office to ask about bis play. Hunt tells him that he has rejected it and mailed the manuscript to him several days ago. The loss of the play accentuates Rowley's sense of utter failure. Having come to the last of his resources, he gets a job at addressing envelopes. His faithful wife falls ill as the result of starvation. Hunt engages a company and starts rehearsals of the stolen play. On the opening night Rowley buys a ticket and attends the performance. He recognizes the new play as the child of his own brain, creates a disturbance and is put out of the theater. Finding Hunt afterward he denounces him as a thief. He is threatened with arrest, and half-crazed, goes home to tell his wife the disheartening news. The shock kills her. Rowley, now entirely insane, jumps into the river. He is rescued by a passing boat, but his hat and coat are found, and he is reported drowned. Hunt reads of the supposed suicide, and confesses to his wife that the great play was not his, but Rowley's. She says the wrong must be righted, and she takes Rowley's son into their home to bring him up with their little girl, Alice. Rowley becomes a wanderer on the face of the earth, his mind a blank. As the years pass, Hunt tries to make reparation by giving Edwin every advantage. Edwin and Alice grow up into young manhood and womanhood, fall in love with each other and are betrothed. Hunt produces a play written by the missing man, to make belated amends for his misdeed, and Rowley seeing it announced, partially regains his reason. He reaches the Hunt home while the guests are toasting the bride and bridegroom. In response to the toast, Edwin begins reciting a poem, the work, as he tells them, of his gifted father. He falters in reciting it, and Rowley, his memory now completely returned, finishes it for him. The past is forgiven, and the playwright's reclining years are spent in peace and happiness.
- News of the approaching death of the President of Lorento is received by "Fighting Bob" Rensaler at college in a letter from General Braga, an intimate friend of his deceased father, and further that Mendoza, the marshal, aspires to the presidency, and assisted by guerrilla warfare, intends to proclaim himself dictator, with the assistance of a guerrilla leader named Ladero. Dulcina Garnia, Bob's sweetheart, is beloved by Ladero. Manuel Garni, her guardian, has promised her in marriage to Ladero for assisting the revolutionists. Bob determines to give his aid to General Braga, and accompanied by his two chums, Cyrus Browa and Comin Hartley, he embarks on Brown's yacht for Lorento. Realizing that Dulcina will not marry him because she loves Bob, Ladero kidnaps her at the instigation of her guardian, intending to force her to marry him. When Bob has left Dulcina to visit General Braga, Ladero's men make away with Dulcina and confine her in a monastery. Riaz, leader of the kidnappers, has gone to the Tavern Verduga, where Bob is in consultation with the general. Dulcina's maid finds Bob there, tells him of Dulcina's plight, and points out Riaz as one of the kidnappers. Bob and his two chums grab Riaz, take him to the yacht, and force a confession from him. Riaz escapes from them by jumping overboard. Ladero, receiving no news from Riaz. sets out with his men for the monastery. Riaz has secured a horse and intends to head off Bob. Ladero has found a priest who is about to marry him to Dulcina but she succeeds in secretly notifying the priest of her predicament and he aids her to escape. She meets Riaz, who forces her into a telegraph station, where the operator is drunk. Kicking the operator out, he attempts to assault Dulcina, who picks up a revolver and shoots him. Bob and his pals have reached the monastery, have a fight with the band of kidnappers, and Bob sees the priest who tells him of Dulcina's escape, and they set out to find her. Ladero on his way to the monastery hears the shot fired by Dulcina and reaches the station as Dulcina is about to rush out. Bob meets the operator, disguises himself in his uniform, locates Dulcina, unseen by Ladero, overhears a message read by Ladero that the president is dead and for him to join Mendoza, and he sees him start away. Ladero has ordered his men to fire on the station. Bob's chums, hearing the firing, come to Bob's aid. Mendoza and Ladero's men attack Braga's forces in the city amid terrific gunfire of infantry, and the cavalry have a tremendous fight which ends in a complete routing of Ladero's supporters. When Bob and his friends are about to give up hope of holding off the outlaws. General Braga and his soldiers arrive to rescue them. Eventually Bob is proclaimed president for his services and is married to Dulcina.
- Dorian Keene, a broker, who has lost most of his money in Wall Street, and his wife, Florence, dissatisfied with her lot, wants a divorce. Out of his great love for her, Dorian agrees to allow her to have it. While the papers are being prepared Sanders, Florence's god-father, confesses to Dorian that he has misappropriated funds belonging to Florence. He fears an exposure, since she is getting a divorce, and may demand an accounting. Dorian promises to do what he can to protect Sanders. They go to Dorian's hunting lodge, where Florence agrees to meet Dorian with her lawyer. There Sanders weakens and tells Florence of the missing funds. She turns upon him in a violent temper. A maid hears them quarreling and soon afterward hears a shot. Hurrying into the room she finds Sanders dead with a bullet wound in his temple. She tells Dorian that Florence has killed Sanders. In his devotion to his wife, Dorian takes the blame for the crime. Then he escapes in an automobile. Down the road Dorian encounters a highwayman who holds him up, takes his clothing and the machine, and leaves his outfit with the bewildered broker. Further along the road the automobile goes over a steep embankment and the car is burned. The body of the highwayman is charred beyond recognition, and everyone thinks it is Dorian. Dorian, penniless, wanders to the water front in New York, intending to take a ship for Europe. There he learns that Henry Morgan, a fellow broker, who was instrumental in making Florence dissatisfied with her lot, has bought his old yacht, the Sea Gull, and is arranging for a smuggling expedition. Morgan has lost nearly all his money, and, in desperation, has taken a contract to smuggle Chinese into this country for a thousand dollars a head. Dorian succeeds in getting a job aboard the yacht as a stoker. The yacht puts to sea, and when some distance from land, meets another vessel, from which the Chinese are taken aboard. As the yacht nears New York, Dorian, after many thrilling incidents, gains control of the wireless apparatus, and notifies the Federal authorities of the smuggling scheme. A revenue cutter meets the yacht and the captain and crew are arrested. The captain names Morgan as the man higher up. Meanwhile Morgan has been pressing his suit with Florence, who, believing her husband dead, has agreed to marry Morgan. Instead, he urges her to come to him without a ceremony. Florence then spurns him, and realizing his true nature turns her thoughts to Dorian. Then the government agents call to arrest Morgan, and at the same time she learns that her husband is alive. Florence sends for Dorian, welcomes him home, and together they tear up the papers for the proposed divorce, which she has kept in her possession.
- Actress Jane Carleson has three admirers: Henry Strong (a millionaire), Hamilton Ross (a chemist), and Murray Campbell (a district attorney). When Jane weds Campbell, Ross writes an anonymous letter to Campbell, warning him that Strong is after his wife. Ross smears the flap of the envelope with poison. However, Strong is the one who opens the envelope, and dies from the poison. Since Campbell and Strong had quarreled just before the arrival of the letter, Campbell is convicted of the murder. Jane must expose the true murderer and save her husband.
- Standish, an artist, finishes a painting of the Madonna. His wife, Mary, acted as model, and when the Connoisseur and the Parishioner inspect the picture, the former tells Standish that he recognizes in the model a one-time paramour of his. The Connoisseur and the Parishioner buy the painting and after their departure Standish upbraids his wife, who tells him that she believed herself legally married to the Connoisseur. Standish refuses to accept her explanation and ejects her and their baby son. Mary leaves her boy on the steps of a monastery, and seventeen years later, just before becoming a monk, he receives permission to see the world. He wanders into a gay café and succumbs to the charms of Beauty. The other inmates of the place, Lust, Rum, Avarice and Passion are dancing around him when the proprietor enters. It is Mary, his mother. She recognizes him from the crucifix which he wears and which she left with him when he was a baby. Without revealing her identity she persuades him to go back and later when he has become a priest, a bedraggled old woman (his mother) enters his church. She recognizes him and just before she dies her son gives her absolution.
- The Uplift Society, with Silas Gilworthy at its head, plans to rid the city of the pernicious influence of the dance parlors. The worst of these is said to be the Purple Lightning Tango Parlor, so-called because of its peculiar light effect. Here the famous dancer, Fifi Melotte, is the star entertainer and leading spirit. Detective Rogers, a friend of Gilworthy's, offers to show him the place and its iniquities, so thinking to aid "the cause," he goes. However, he is an easy victim to Fifi's innocent ways, assumed for the moment, and comes more than once to see her, without the escort of the Uplift Society. The tango parlor is raided, and Fifi and "Uncle Silas," with difficulty, escape a visit to the police court. They "do" Coney Island and have their pictures taken together m a loving pose. Silas is engaged to the wealthy Adelaide Severn, and their marriage is soon to take place. Adelaide is being besieged by the attentions of a bogus Count, who is a friend of Fifi's. The Count has stolen a necklace of matched Pearls and given them to Fifi for safekeeping. Fifi in turn has slipped the mesh bag in which she has placed them in Silas' desk and ask for an explanation. Not knowing what else to do, he tells his fiancée it is his wedding present to her. Fifi comes to the Severn home, where the wedding is to take place, to demand the return of the bag and blackmail him with the loving picture. Silas introduces her as Mrs. Rogers, the wife of his detective friend who has written she cannot come. But complications follow immediately, when Rogers himself arrives on the trail of the Count, whom he suspects of having the necklace, soon followed by Mrs. Rogers. The necklace is stolen from Adelaide's neck, and the person nearest her, whom Rogers has to lock up for safe-keeping, is his own wife. Both Rogers and Silas go to Fifi's room in search of the pearls. Fifi screams, the entire household enters, and Rogers and Silas make a hasty exit. Silas tries to hide in a kimono in the closet, and is discovered. But the pearls are in the hem of the kimono, and the Count tries to snatch it after Silas has taken it off. Rogers arrests the Count, confiscates the pearls in the name of the government, and Adelaide and Silas, forgiving and forgetting, prepare to keep step to the wedding march.
- Margaret Primrose is not permitted to see Ted North, who loves her, by her father, whom Ted's father ruined. To spite Ted, Primrose forces Margaret to marry Weston, a dissolute young millionaire, and Ted, heartbroken, goes West. Weston neglects Margaret and continues drinking. Seven years later, the Westons move West on the advice of his doctor to improve his health. Ted, meanwhile, has adopted the small daughter of a cattle rustler who was lynched by Ted's cowboys. When he spots a runaway horse and lassoes its rider, Margaret, they embrace, but realizing the impropriety, they bid each other goodbye. Weston resumes drinking and takes an interest in Molly, the proprietress of a dance hall. When Molly's sweetheart, "Quick Foot Jim" learns that Molly and Weston are planning to elope, he kills Weston. After Ted is convicted of the murder, based on circumstantial evidence, Jim abducts Molly. When Margaret learns the truth, a posse is organized to find Jim. No information has been located concerning the film's ending.
- Col. Brendon, Chief of the English Diplomatic office, upon his departure for France, turns the office over to Capt. Mills, with the understanding that Jim Clifford, one of the ablest men in the Secret Service, will assist him. Among the papers left in Capt. Mills' care is a valuable document marked "File 117." Capt. Mills invites the boys of the war office to his apartment to play cards. Jim goes but does not play. He amazes them by explaining that he possesses the almost uncanny ability to tell the value of his opponents' hand. Capt. Mills loses heavily. In a rage he accuses Jim of being a sharp, and that he has been assisting one of the players by coaching him from behind. Jim resents this, and in a quarrel that follows Capt. Mills throws a glass of whiskey in his face. Later, his friends convince the Captain that he was in the wrong and owes Jim an apology. The Captain apologizes, but decides to give him an impossible task to perform and thus discredit him. Capt. Mills goes to the war office that night and abstracts "File 117" and the next day instructs Jim to search for it. At the end of a week he rebukes Jim for his unsuccessful search. Capt. Mills and Jim are invited by Lady Marion to spend the weekend at her place in the country. Capt. Mills accepts the invitation, but Jim remains behind to continue his search. He meets a cabman who asks him to return a cigarette case the Captain left in his cab a week before. Jim questions the cabman and learns that the Captain went to the war office after the card game in his home. Jim breaks into Capt. Mills' apartment, and after drugging the butler searches the premises. He fails to find the missing paper. Jim then learns that Capt. Mills is going with the weekend party for a short cruise in the beautiful Grace Weston's yacht. He disguises himself and succeeds in getting aboard. The next day the yacht tears a great hole in her side, when she crashes into treacherous drift ice. The entire party and crew, excepting Grace and Jim, get away in the lifeboats and are picked up by a steamer and taken back to England. Jim picks Miss Weston out of the water, in an unconscious condition, and takes her aboard a life raft. They land on an island along the coast. When they become hungry Jim suggests that he try to catch some fish, and asks his companion if she can spare anything from her apparel to use for a fishing line. While unlacing a string from her corset, she accidentally drops the missing papers from her bodice, which Mills had given her to keep for him. She recovers the papers quickly, but Jim decides to get them. The next day Jim and Grace are rescued, and taken back to England. In the meantime Col. Brendon has heard of the missing file, and calls Capt. Mills to task. The Captain, thinking the papers are lost with Grace, and knowing that Jim is mysteriously missing, places the blame upon him. Jim arrives, tells the Colonel of his experience, and is promptly promoted. Capt. Mills is dismissed from the service, and Grace, learning the truth of matters, finds that she has a growing interest in Jim.
- College youth J. Dabney Barron regularly fails in his examinations; in disgust, his father deprives him of money and tells him to go to work, betting him $6,000 that he cannot hold a $60-a-month position for that time period. J. Dabney agrees, and with his valet Perkins he goes to look for a job. In a park he meets heiress Betty Arden, whose car has broken down. Her guest, Lord Lawrence, is incapable of helping her, and Dabney hastens to her assistance. She hurries away as soon as her car is repaired. Installing himself and his valet in a room in a lodging house, Dabney reads the want ads. Answering an advertisement for a bookkeeper, he stands in a long line of applicants until he grows tired; his valet, who has taken his place, gets the job. Finally Dabney obtains work through his friend Jim Foley of a detective agency. John Arden, millionaire gem collector, has a priceless emerald called "The Lady of the Sea." He fears it may be stolen and as a matter of fact his guest Lord Lawrence, better known to the English police as "London Larry," is planning to steal the emerald. Foley tells Dabney that to guard the emerald he must pose as butler in the Arden home. No sooner does Dabney enter upon his new work than he discovers Betty Arden, his employer's daughter, to be the girl he helped in the park. In an attempt to retain his dignity in her eyes he tells her he and his sister inherited an enormous fortune from an uncle; that the uncle had a secretary a villainous chap named Slime who forced him to make a will disinheriting Dabney and his sister; that Slime and his accomplices made the old man drink nitroglycerin but unfortunately for them permitted him to fall down when he exploded burning up the will; that the villainous secretary had then overpowered Dabney and run away with the girl, whom Dabney had ever since been seeking, hence his presence in the Arden household as butler. Betty pretends to believe the story, although she has been aware of Dabney's identity all along. Dabney continues to attend to his duties as butler and to guard the jewel from "London Larry." Finally the month is up, and Dabney, in great glee at having won the bet from his father, dares to make known his love to Betty. She returns his affection, and they are discovered in a fond embrace by John Arden, who instantly discharges Dabney. That night he is about to take his departure when he surprises "London Larry" opening the safe in Arden's library. He overpowers the would-be jewel thief, and throws him into the safe. Arden, coming downstairs, liberates Lord Lawrence, who tells him Dabney is the real culprit, and together they overpower him and tie him to a chair. Dabney urges them to send for Foley, to identify him, and the detective, arriving, makes haste to free Dabney and arrest "London Larry." Dabney, cheered by Betty's promise to marry him, goes home to collect his $6,000, having proved himself his father's son.