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- John Howard Payne at his most miserable point in life, writes a song which becomes popular and inspires other people at some point in their lives.
- George Waring becomes infatuated with Miss Lowe and his wife divorces him, While driving, Miss Lowe's horse runs away and she is heroically rescued by Dick Watts, a handsome youth who falls in love with her. Miss Lowe, attired in bridal gown, is about to marry Waring when Watts rushes in and tempestuously exhorts her not to marry Waring, and as she has really learned to love Watts she accedes to his wishes. Waring is furious at having his bride snatched from his hands at the very altar, but resigns himself to his fate. Watts marries Miss Lowe, and, alone, seeks his fortune in Alaska. Meantime Mrs. Waring has met a childhood sweetheart, Paul Durkin, a soldier of fortune and a gambler, marries him and drifts to the Alaskan gold fields. Watts makes a rich strike and prepares to return home, but meets Durkin who fleeces him. He attempts suicide, and is found badly wounded by Mrs. Durkin, who nurses him back to health, and, touched by his story, persuades Durkin to give back the gold and sends for his wife. When she arrives Mrs. Durkin learns that she has befriended the husband of the girl who wrecked her home, and struck by the humor of the situation bursts into hysterical laughter, in which she is gradually joined by the motley crowd of picturesquely attired mend from many lands, forming a tableau of irresistible humor.
- Harry Ogden - ne'er-do-well - is caught by a sheriff's posse and is about to be hung when he is saved by Betty, the daughter of a Kentucky Colonel, who is traveling in the West for his health. Ogden is addicted to a morphine habit and Betty, who is a doctor, hides him in their house and nurses him back to health. Ogden asks Betty to be his wife, and he is returning to his family home to get some money. The Colonel, mistaken for Ogden by Taylor, a rival for Betty's hand, is shot and killed by Taylor, who leaves evidence pointing to Ogden as the killer. Betty plans to turn him over to the law when he returns. Meanwhile, Taylor is killed by Choo, who is secretly in love with Betty, and she learns through Choo that Ogden is innocent of her father's murder.
- 'Our Mutual Girl' was unique. Not quite a serial, not quite a newsreel, and not strictly an advertisement, it combined elements of all three. In 52 weekly one-reel episodes, running from January 19, 1914 to January 11, 1915, the Mutual Girl outwitted villains, saw the sights of New York, met with theatrical and political celebrities (who frequently helped her out of trouble), and tried on fashionable outfits in chic stores. The fashions were an early example of product placement--although, apparently, not paid placement.
- The spoiled son of an indulgent father gives up his home and career after a quarrel and leaves home. He drifts down the path of life with vice and degradation as his companions. He meets a girl in a saloon whose life has always been in the depths and falls in love with her. This girl meets a sister of charity, who tells her of "The Light About the Throne," and urges her to reform, giving her a card and telling her to call on her at any time she needs help. One day the rival of the prodigal son taunts him with the fact that he had the girl before he did and they fight, the rival being worsted and swears revenge. The girl is now repentant of her past and sets out to seek the Sister of Mercy, who secures her a position as maid in the house of the prodigal's father who, since his son left home, has been helping charitable organizations. The son follows the girl and finds out she has gone to the sister and has left her old life, and he gives her up, although he still loves her. The girl is at his father's home and the father of the prodigal, lonely for his son, falls in love with her. The rival of the prodigal follows the girl to the father's home and tells the father of the girl's past, which she admits. Despite her past the father still loves her and takes her in his arms. The prodigal returns just in time to see his girl in his father's arms and realizing that he has caused the old man enough trouble in the past and not wishing to spoil his new found happiness nor that of the girl, he turns away and goes back to the world as a real man.
- Shakespeare's tragedy of the Scots nobleman whose ambition leads him to betrayal, murder, and damnation.
- Biff Dugan, the eldest son of a poor family living in a tenement on the squalid East Side of New York, leads a gang of hoodlums, among whose members is his brother Porky. Their sister Jess is a consumptive whose health was ruined in a sweatshop. During a melee in a mission run by reformer Henry Davis, the Dugan gang encounters Billy Drew and his sister Cora, newcomers to the city. Porky saves Cora from the unwelcome attentions of Biff's rival, Spike Golden, and the two fall in love. Later, when Spike is killed in a gang war, Biff is wrongfully convicted of the murder and executed in the electric chair. Porky, who served a short term in prison for his part in the crime, comes back to the city to find that Jess has died and Cora has returned to the country. When his gang delivers the man who betrayed Biff, Porky, whose heart has been softened by Cora and Billy, lets the man go. Finally, Porky retires to the country to lead the quiet life of a farmer with Cora as his wife.
- A murderer is haunted by the spirit of his victim.
- Elaine, a well-known lecturer, hates men. John, who has written a book called, "Women, the Silly Sex," cannot bear the sight of a woman, and to avoid them all in general, he arranges for the purchase of a deserted island where he will be able to write in peace. Elaine goes to the home of a friend in the country, near John's island. One day, out on the lake, she starts to rehearse her speech with such feeling that she falls overboard. She swims ashore and there finds John's clothes, he having gone in for a swim. She hurriedly changes her dripping riding habit for his things. Seeing him coming out of the water, she runs up the path. He finds the wet suit and thinks some boy took his clothes. He races after Elaine, and catching up with her grabs her by the collar and announces his intention of thrashing "the boy." But luckily her cap comes off and he sees that it is a woman who has invaded his island. She calls him a brute and tells him she wants to get back to the mainland. He suggests she wait in his cabin until a boat passes. An hour goes by and Elaine commences to feel hungry. She summons John and tells him that she is hungry. He points to the icebox and bids her cook what she wishes. She is furious at the idea, but later hunger gets the better of her pride and she manages to prepare lunch. Five o'clock arrives. She tells John that he will have to swim to the mainland for a boat. He cannot swim well and is not anxious to take a chance. She insists. He finally goes, and as she sees him dive into the sea she gets frightened and begs him to come back. But he does not listen. He encounters a rowboat with Elaine's friend and a couple of fishermen looking for the missing girl. He takes them to the island and Elaine is taken aboard, but not before she has shaken hands cordially with the woman hater, who finds himself wishing that he might see her again. In the pocket of her riding suit he later finds her card and calls upon her. They become great friends and a double conversion is affected when he persuades her to burn her lecture with a copy of his book.
- Paul, a homeless boy, is the mascot of Great Cedar Camp. He forms a friendship with Mildred, the beautiful little daughter of Mr. Edgar, owner of the camp, who has a refining influence upon the untaught boy, and, in his turn, he teaches Mildred woodcraft. Edgar is not a favorite among his men. Two lumberjacks, intending to hold Mildred for ransom, kidnap her and carry her into the mountains. Following Paul's instructions, she manages to mark the trail, so that the boy, following with a rescue party, is able to guide the others to the spot where the little girl is held captive. Mr. Edgar improves unjust conditions in the camp and provides for Paul's education.
- An Irish smuggler of a hundred years ago has a beautiful daughter whom the mate of the smuggling ship loves. She loves a revenue officer. Her father quits smuggling for his daughter's sake. The mate gives up all hope of winning the girl and saves the life of the revenue officer by rescuing him from the sea where the smugglers had cast him. The mate is killed by a stray shot. The revenue officer is accused, but later is cleared of all blame and wins the girl.
- Grinde is a junior partner of a pottery firm. An old chemist, Benjamin Lord, discovers a formula for glazing pottery that is designed to revolutionize the industry. The chemist's grandson, David, takes a sample of the new process to Grinde, who says he will give it consideration. He delegates his foreman, Mole, to steal the formula. Mole kills the chemist, and he and Grinde frame an explosion to conceal the crime. After David refuses to sell the formula, Grinde and Mole lock him and his sweetheart in a vault with poisonous gas. Grinde then tries to kill Mole, who knows too much, and take over the firm from his elderly partner at a directors' meeting.
- Sisters Anne and May work in a jewelry store. May borrows a necklace from the store to wear at a dance, intending to replace it early the next day, but in the morning she is late. The necklace's absence is discovered, and May hides the jewelry in Anne's coat. Silent through fear, May sees her sister arrested and sent to prison. On her release, Anne is bounded by fellow prisoner Kane. She escapes to a distant town, where she eventually marries. Kane turns up, blackmails her, and reveals her prison record to her husband. May, who is living in the same city, married and happy, save for the torturing thought of her sister's punishment for her guilt, learns of the situation and confesses the truth to Anne's husband.
- When the soldiers attacked the old home of the Von Hirschsprung family, the father buried his family treasure in the garden. In the fight that followed he was killed but his two sons survived. Having no money, and supposing their fortune stolen, the sons sell the old home to the Hellwig family. Cordula, daughter of old Hellwig, falls in love with Joseph, the younger Von Hirschsprung brother. He returns her affection, but her father will not permit the marriage because of Joseph's poverty. One day Cordula, digging in the garden, unearths the Hirschsprung treasure and tells her father, who makes her vow never to tell of the finding of the money chest. Joseph deprived of his sweetheart, dies in poverty. Broken-hearted Cordula removes her things to an upper apartment and vows she will never enjoy any of the ill-gotten wealth. Years later, the only surviving member of the Von Hirschsprungs marries a strolling player. Ten years later she is killed by accident during her act in the circus and her husband, to save his child from a similar fate, puts her in the care of Cordula's brother Nathan. The child, Fay, finds no welcome in her new home until she meets Cordula, now known as Old Mam'selle. She and Old Mam'selle have adjoining attic rooms and spend much time together. Everyone knows that Old Mam'selle has a secret, but no one knows what it is. The years pass. John, son of the Hellwigs, returns from the Medical University to fall in love with Fay. He is expected to marry Hortense, a rich widow with one child. Fay saves this child from an awful death by fire and wins John's admiration as well as his love. His mother refuses to accept Fay as a daughter. In the midst of all this confusion Old Mam'selle is taken ill. Before she dies she tells Fay that her diary contains her secret and it must die with her. Fay promises to destroy the little book. After Old Mam'selle's death, Fay finds the book and is about to destroy it when John enters the room and sees her. He demands that she give him the diary. She refuses at first but finally yields. Then she goes to her room to pack her things. Feeling herself very unwelcome at the Hellwigs she thinks she had better go away. John opens the little book and reads the whole story of the Hellwig wealth and how it all belongs to the Hirschsprung family. He rushes out of the room with the book and finds Fay ready to leave. She has her grip in her hands. He takes it from her and begs her to remain. As he takes the grip he notices the name Meta Von Hirschsprung, with a crest printed across it. He stares at Fay and asks her whose grip it is. She replies it belonged to her mother who took it with her when she ran away to he married. Then John knows that Fay is the sole remaining member of the once famous Von Hirschsprungs and that the money being enjoyed by the Hellwigs belongs to her. He tells her and she realizes that she is rich, feels free to accept his heart offered to her in the days when he did not know she had a single penny to her name.
- Alice Williams has two suitors, a young doctor and a rich broker. She accepts the latter. Ralph Malcolm, because she loves him. John Douglas turns his attention to his charity patients at the big hospital. Malcolm gives a dinner to announce his engagement to Alice. During the dinner some discussion arises regarding jewels, and Malcolm takes out half a dozen odd and curious rings which he displays to his guests. When these are returned to him he finds that one is missing. That night when Alice is undressing she tells her maid about the ring that disappeared so strangely. A little later, after Alice has retired, the maid finds the ring caught in the laces of her mistress's gown. A sudden temptation assails her and she makes up her mind to pawn the ring. Malcolm hires a detective to trace the missing jewel and the next day when she goes to pawn it the ring is recognized and she is held. When brought to bay she breaks down and tells them that her mistress, Alice Williams, sent her to pawn the ring. This story is repeated to Malcolm, who believes that the maid could not have secured the ring otherwise had Alice not given it to her. He sends a note to his fiancée, breaking their engagement. Douglas, who right along refuses to doubt Alice even for a moment, brings her the note. After reading the letter she is stunned. He asks her to be his wife, but she says that she will never marry until the cloud has been removed from her name. Some time later while Alice is visiting at the charity hospital in which Douglas is, a patient is brought in. She proves to be the maid, who, upon seeing Alice, breaks down and confesses the whole story. Malcolm receives the signed confession and immediately is stricken with remorse for his hastiness. He rushes over to Alice to find that she has become the betrothed wife of the young doctor.
- In Mexico, a humble peon has great difficulty retaining his small farm because of the greediness of those controlling the government. While he is in another town, two federal officials search for loot in his cottage and attack his two sisters. The elder, lame from birth, shoots herself rather than succumb to their lust. Her 14-year-old sister loses her mind and dies after telling her brother what occurred. The peon vows vengeance and is branded an outlaw by the frightened officials. After he escapes from jail with help from an old family servant, he is aided in eluding his pursuers by Americans traveling in a covered wagon. Years later, the outlaw, now the commander-in-chief of the Constitutionalist Army, wins many victories and kills one of the officials who attacked his sisters. When he learns that the Americans who helped him are in trouble, he leads a cavalry charge to rescue their wagon train from being attacked by revolutionists. He recognizes one of the attackers as the other official and is about to exact vengeance as the film ends.
- The owner of the Pitchfork Ranch of which Thorne is manager finds that many of his cattle are disappearing. He orders Thorne to get the cattle back or lose his job. Thorne employs Bass, a gunman, to get the thief, whom he hints is Tom Farrell, his sister Mattie's sweetheart. Bass finds Farrell to be a square young fellow and Mattie, despite her rebuffs, an "up and up little gal." Incidentally Bass discovers that Thorne himself, has been stealing his boss's cattle and threatens to expose the rancher unless he makes good the stolen cattle and gives Mattie a piece of property for a wedding present. Thorne complies reluctantly and the gunman acts as best man at the wedding.
- When Boston Blackie, a tramp, arrives in a little town, the station agent refuses him food, but the man's daughter interferes and persuades her father to feed him. Later he is joined by Red and Slim, a couple of his crook pals, who plan a holdup of the station agent and ask him to join the plan, but just as the robbery is about to be pulled off, he discovers that the agent is Anna's father and refuses. Afraid he will interfere, Red and Slim tie him up and set off, but find Anna tending the station in place of her father, who is ill. The robbers think they have a cinch; they terrify Anna and proceed to help themselves, getting very drunk. They insult Anna, whom they have frightened but have not tied up, leaving her free, though unable to get out or to reach the telegraph key. Blackie rolls over to the track and lies in such a position that a passing train cuts his bonds. He hastens to the rescue, and after a big fight captures the crooks and turns them over to the constable. Next day he is rewarded by the agent, who secures him a place as a student freight "brakie" running out of town. Later Blackie is successful and in love with the agent's daughter. The two crooks have sworn vengeance against Blackie and while the latter is '"braking" the two crooks board his train at a lonely water tank and are discovered by Blackie, who fights them and cleans them up. Even thirstier for vengeance after being thrown off the train, they return to town and lay for him, finally planning to avenge themselves on him through Anna. The plan is to put her on a car on a grade and send her flying down grade to her death at a curve by the river. The two crooks lure her into the yards by a fake note purporting to come from Blackie, but Blackie returns in time to warn the girl. Dressed up in sunbonnet, Blackie goes to the car but is overpowered and the crooks start the car rolling down the grade, first setting the switch to throw the car over an embankment into the river. Blackie loosens his hands but the car is going too fast for him to escape, and he goes into the river with the car, but he crawls out unhurt and meets the girl, who has forced the two crooks at the point of a gun to ride her on a handcar in pursuit of the runaway cars. The two crooks are caught and Anna helps rescue Blackie.
- Theatrical manager Isaac Shuman has a reputation for "taking advantage" of young girls who want to become stars on Broadway. Reporter Tom Warder investigates these stories and exposes Shuman in his newspaper. Shuman threatens to kill Warder, then leaves town. He returns several years later, and hatches a scheme to frame Tom and have him sent to prison. He succeeds, but Tom hatches his own plan to get his revenge.
- This story deals with the lives of the Indians who ruled primeval North America for centuries before the white man came. Meene-o-Wa, the fairest maiden of all the tribes of the Utes, was called "The Yellow Rose," because of her beauty. Wathuma, the leopard, loved her, but her heart was not given to him. One day in the forest she came upon a handsome young stranger. They looked into each other's eyes and Meene-O-Wa knew that she loved him. Leaving him there she ran away, but be followed her back to her father's camp. He went to the old chief and asked her band in marriage. But the chief, looking upon his headdress of a single feather, told him that the man who won his daughter must be a chief. Then, considering, he told the stranger that if he could vanquish the famous warrior, Wahtuma, in a wrestling match, he might claim as his reward. "The Yellow Rose." Wahtuma, full of hate for his rival, put forth his best effort in the fight that followed, while Meene-O-Wa stood by, her heart torn with the fear that Waheta, the stranger, might lose. But the straight and supple stranger soon had the master hand, and slowly forced his foe to his knees, amid the plaudits of the tribe. So Meene-O-Wa was given to Waheta, and Wahtuma left them, vowing vengeance. A few days later Meene-O-Wa, while waiting in the woods for her husband, is thrown from the rocks by Wahtuma. And there it is that her husband finds her, dead. The bereaved husband carried his wife's body back to the camp, and, after handing her to the old chief, he begs one boon of the great spirit that he be able to kill Wahtuma. Rushing out into the woods, he comes upon the leopard, and he gives him just one chance to defend himself. Before the fury of the maddened husband the other man's weapons are powerless, and he is overcome and killed. Waheta then returns to the camp to mourn over Meene-O-Wa's body.
- Kaintuck is a big mountaineer. He loves his sweetheart, Sue, with his whole simple, honest heart. One day an artist comes to sketch in their vicinity. He is immediately struck by Sue's beauty and asks permission to use her as his model. Kaintuck is not pleased with the idea, but the girl consents. When the artist secures board in Sue's home, Kaintuck's jealousy knows no bounds. One day he sees the artist posing Sue, and noticing that the man's arms are about the girl, he decides that she loves him. But the artist thinks only of Sue as a model, his heart being given to Dora, her sister. One day the artist stumbles upon an illicit still in the woods and, inspired by its picturesqueness, he takes out his book and starts to sketch it. Some moonshiners who have been watching him, think that he must be a revenue spy who would be better out of the way, so they lead him out to shoot him. The girls see him, and Sue rushes up to plead for his life. Kaintuck, coming along, saves the artist for Sue's sake. Later he comes to the girl telling her that he will give her up to the man she loves. She is surprised, but when Dora comes along with the artist the situation is explained to everyone's satisfaction.
- A woman spy in the employ of a foreign government is ordered to get the plans of a fortification from a young lieutenant, and is threatened with death if she is not successful. She goes to the embassy ball and sees there her victim, the lieutenant who is intoxicated and lying across the table. She succeeds in getting the plans from his pocket and goes away. Arriving home she realizes by a movement of the curtain that the man who controls her life waits for the papers in the next room. As she starts to take them to him a letter falls to the floor from the envelope containing the plans. It is a letter from the lieutenant's mother expressing faith in his execution of his duty to his country, and she realizes what this will mean to the mother. She finally decides that she would rather have the son meet disgrace than herself meet death. In a reverie she has a vision of her own life starting when as a young girl she left home. The vision of her own mother causes her to decide to return the plans which she does. She then walks slowly into the room where death awaits her. A great struggle is apparent by the quivering of the curtain and in the last scene the man's foot is seen just going out of the window, while the woman lies in a huddled heap on the floor with a smile on her face.
- Romeo and Juliet type story loosely based upon the famed Hatfield/McCoy feud.
- John Walsh, a miner, leaves his wife and baby behind on his barren claim, and takes his small store of gold to the settlement where he loses at the gaming table. In a fight which follows, Burns, a cow-puncher, kills Walsh. Mrs. Walsh attempts to work her dead husband's claim, but in a few weeks breaks down. A doctor who is called in declares that only the transfusion of a healthy person's blood can save Mrs. Walsh's life. Burns, a fugitive, appears and agrees to submit to the operation. While the mob who seek Burns are held off, the doctor proceeds with the transfusion. Mrs. Walsh's life is saved, but Burns, weakened by hunger and exposure, succumbs, happy in having made amends for his crime.
- A poor widow dies, leaving her two young children, Bob and Mabel, in the care of a poor neighbor, who later is forced by circumstances to give them to an asylum. Twenty years pass and Jack, who has been adopted by a good family, has now gone into business for himself and is a rising young broker. He has been searching the detective agencies for his sister, without success, for some years. Mabel ran away from the asylum and has been brought up by a poor family, is without education and is now employed as a servant, and on a certain day is hanging clothes on a roof nearby a large office building, in which Bob has his office, and a small boy is flying his kite from the same rooftop. Bob is on a balcony, or ledge, outside his office window and the janitor, thinking him gone for the day, closes and locks the iron fire shutters, locking him out on the balcony. A big deal is on, and after a long wait, during which he vainly tries to attract someone's attention, he feels against his cheek the tail of the kite the small boy is now pulling in. He hastily ties a note telling of his predicament, to the kite tail, and sends it off. The boy finds it, takes it to Mabel, who leads a run to the rescue party and Bob's assistance, and the two are reunited.
- While with the French Foreign Legion in Algeria, Lt. Dubois seduces the lovely Zora, leaving her with a child and his medal for bravery. Sheik Achmed generously befriends Zora, and when she is killed in an accident he raises her son, El Rabb, as his own, and soon El Rabb and Achmed's biological son Bel Khan become best friends. Years later Lt. Dubois, now a general, is dispatched to Algeria to crush a revolt led by El Rabb and Bel Khan--and he doesn't know that El Rabb is his son--who wears his father's medal around his neck.
- Jim Dodson, a poor workman, has been in the habit of begging a streetcar transfer in town, in order to ride home each night from work. Ford and Ransom, a couple of crooks, rob a store and among the things taken are a quantity of stamped envelopes with the name and address of the firm printed thereon. Helen, of the "Herald," tries to ferret out the robbery, but is unsuccessful, until one day Ford writes a letter and gives it to a passing little girl to mail, first scratching out the name on the stamped envelope. Helen bumps into the little girl, knocking the letter to the ground. Picking it up for her, Helen notes the scratched-out name and address, and follows the child to the crook's shack. There she discovers part of the loot, but is captured and tied up by one of them. Leaving her securely tied, Ford goes downtown to meet his pal, and on a streetcar they plan their getaway. Ford gives Ransom the address of the shack, and the hiding place of the loot, and writes it on a transfer slip, to be sure he doesn't forget it. Getting off the car at the transfer point, he drops the transfer and Jim hurriedly picks it up and gets on the car. The conductor is talking to Fields, a detective, also working on the case, and shows the transfer with its message to Fields. The latter, reading the message on it, leads a run to the rendezvous, rescues Helen and captures the crooks and the loot.
- Mary Jones, slavey, lonely and unloved, advertises in a matrimonial paper for a good man to marry her. Charlie Brown, village sport, answers the ad. He signs it with the name of "Silent Sandy," his bachelor friend, telling Mary to come at once and he will make her happy. Mary comes. Sandy, willing to meet her, she looks him up. The tender hearted bachelor, realizing from the grins of Charlie and his pal that this is a put up job of theirs, marries Mary out of pity. Mary discovers "the joke," and that Silent Sandy did not marry her for love. As she is very much in love with her husband, this nearly breaks her heart. Meanwhile, Charlie has become fascinated by Mary's beauty. He declares his feelings, begging her to elope with him. Mary, furiously unhappy, repulses him, and Sandy comes in just in time to finish up Charlie. Then it dawns upon Sandy how much he really cares for his wife, and at last Mary Jones knows what it is to be blissfully happy.
- "Raffles," the gentleman burglar, in private life, Mr. Van Courtlaud Dunbar, went down to the gangsters' headquarters to impress them with his authority. He had a virtual hypnotic power over criminals of the "Kid Joseph" type, and he succeeded in disarming the gangsters and delivering Ada Taylor. He took the girl to Mrs. Knickerbocker's, and leaving her with the butler, returned to his apartments. Meanwhile, many notable friends of Mrs. Knickerbocker called to offer their sympathy. Miss Theodora Bean, the writer, was the first to arrive. She had scarcely gone when Mme. Yorska of the Theater Sarah Bernhardt came, and then Miss Florence Reed, the star of "The Yellow Ticket." As soon as Mrs. Knickerbocker was alone in the drawing room, Ada Taylor presented herself. She excitedly poured out her story of the last few days, and how she had been rescued. Mrs. Knickerbocker lost no time in phoning Dunbar, but her spirits sank when he answered that he had no news for her. A moment after he had hung up the receiver, Dunbar's eye fell on a headline in the newspaper, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Arrives Tomorrow. Creator of Sherlock Holmes, greatest of all detective story writers on visit to New York. Aboard the Olympic." Mrs. Knickerbocker received a message almost immediately. "Leave everything to me," said the masterful voice of Dunbar over the wire. "I will find your niece within a week." Though he explained nothing, Mrs. Knickerbocker was confident. She would spend this interminable time of waiting in making festive preparations for her niece. The next morning she motored down to Miss Kennedy, modiste, and selected several dainty little summer frocks. Then to Thorley's Fifth Avenue Florists, where she ordered dozens of the most ravishing flowers to be delivered on an hour's notice any day that Margaret might return. She was so happy and so certain now that she would see the lost child almost any hour, that she even drove down to the office of Dudley Field Malone, Collector of the Port of New York, to tell him the good news. That same morning, Dunbar went down the bay on a revenue cutter to meet the Olympic. He succeeded in gaining access to A. Conan Doyle, and, as a result of their interview, he telegraphed Mrs. Knickerbocker: "I have news that will surely bring your niece back within the week."
- Marie is a very religious village girl. Her mother, fearing that some man will make her unhappy (as she had been made by a man) made her promise on her deathbed that she would enter a nunnery. Marie considers that promise sacred and will allow nothing to interfere with her keeping that promise. Her grandfather is charged with seeing that she keeps her word, and his advice having been refused by his own daughter, Marie's mother, he intends that this time it will be heeded. Meeting and loving a young man visiting her village (a nephew of the village priest), Marie rebels against giving him up and, sealing herself up in a nunnery for life. But her promise to her mother stands between and her grandfather chides her and tries to force her to a realization that breaking the promise she made would mean everlasting damnation. She is still undecided, however, and grandfather, to save her soul, falsely accuses the young man of being untrue to her and by a ruse proves it to her and she is forced to believe. The crafty old man also falsely proves to the young man, by a forged note, that she is untrue and is going into the nunnery to expiate her sin. Broken-hearted, the young man goes away and equally broken-hearted, Marie goes into the nunnery and is on probation until she is considered fit to become a full-fledged nun. Later, she becomes a nun in full orders, the youngest of the convent. The young man, a musician, writes a great opera and marries the star as a marriage of convenience, and lives not far from the convent. His wife does not love him. He realizes her motive for marrying him and is unhappy. He lives only in the dear, dead past and in dreams of Marie, whom he has never ceased to love. He has hidden away the forged letter the uncle wrote and often takes it out and weeps over it. Marie, too, even in full orders, cannot always forget him. At night in her cell she weeps and pours forth her agony of soul and heart and prays for peace from its suffering, and finally finds it completely in her religious life and affairs and puts the man out of her heart completely. One day the uncle dies and tells the priest of his act in separating Marie and the boy. The priest tells Mother Superior, who is afraid to tell Marie, but she has overheard and realizes the position she and the young man are in, but is content, although sorry for the young man. Later, the young man's wife lies ill and is dying. A nun is delegated to nurse her and Marie is sent. The young man and Marie meet face to face across the bedside of the dying wife. Marie tells the young man of the truth of the affair, and he urges on her that her vows were taken under a misapprehension. The wife dies; Dorothy refuses the love and happiness thus offered her, and finally renounces her love and goes back to the convent. Some years later, show Dorothy in the garden of the convent, telling her beads. Outside is the young man, alone, walking past the walls of the convent. He goes on and up upon a hill which looks down upon the convent. The garden can be seen from there. Dorothy can see the hill from her garden spot. She sees a figure on the hill; it holds out its arms to her; she gazes, then turns away; he, too, turns away. And so they live their lives apart.
- The headless body of a young man is found in the river and newspaper man Connors and cub reporter Bruce are sent out on the story. Bruce wants to make a record and finds a white and streaked button. Bruce follows the clue and finds in a factory in L.I. City that two employees, John Joyce and Sam Leonard, did not show up for work that morning. Leonard is accounted for, but Joyce is not. McGinnis, a stableman, identifies a picture of a man in a group picture on the wall of the factory office, as one who hired a rig from him, and next to this man is Joyce and a girl, Helen Lister, whose photo adorns Joyce's dresser. Helen tells that she was engaged to Joyce until Greening, the other man of the group, came to work at the factory and Joyce warned her against him. The night before the murder Greening had called and taken her to Jersey City to be married. He had gotten out at his flat in Manhattan, gone inside, then called out the window to tell her to wait at a hotel for him in Jersey City, but he had never shown up. Bruce then discovers that Greening was the son of a multi-millionaire and no one knew why he should be working in a factory under an assumed name. Bruce and McGinnis go to Greening's flat and have a run-in with the janitor and tie him up; later they also catch Greening. He escapes and calls the police and denounces Bruce and McGinnis as burglars, but they turn the tables again and take Greening to the newspaper office. They believe that he killed Joyce to get his girl, but it transpires that the man they have captured is really Joyce. Joyce tells them he followed Greening the night of the murder and confronted him in his rooms and forced him to promise to marry the girl under his own real name and not that of Greening. They fight and Greening is killed accidentally. He then threw his body in the creek. He pretended to be Greening in order to throw the police and reporters off the track and save the girl's reputation. A letter found from Greening tells that he was really on the square with the girl and meant to marry her and the shock of this fact being brought home to Joyce, and the realization that all his work and killing has been for naught, kills him.
- Tom Evans, his wife and child live happily on their little place in Arizona, until the craze to see a big city and the thirst for gold get hold of Tom. He reads of the great "strike" at Cripple Creek. He goes there, strikes it rich, and makes his way to Chicago. There he forgets the wife and boy in Arizona in another existence. Twenty years pass, and at last comes a longing for his old home. He returns. The child he left is now a man, who tells his father that there is no place with him and his deserted mother for him. In the saloon the boy threatens his father before onlookers. Later, when the latter is found lying unconscious at the bottom of the arroyo, the son is accused and taken into custody. But Tom has only been stunned by his fall. He testifies that it was an accident, and a reconciliation is effected between him and his long lost family.
- Mae is a girl of the slums. Her antecedents are unknown. She works as a dancing girl around a rough dive where her sweetheart Bob is a waiter. Graves, a cheap sport, takes a fancy to Mae and asks the bartender who she is. The bartender tells him that nobody knows where she came from. When Graves becomes fresh with Mae, Bob warns him off. On their day off, Bob and Mae go walking in the park. They see young couples with their babies and long for a decent married existence. Judge Lewis, in his courtroom, is sternly sentencing a criminal who is pleading for mercy. A second judge enters the room and is invited to the bench as a matter of courtesy. He whispers to Judge Lewis in favor of the criminal, but Lewis is firm and sends the prisoner away condemned to the limit. Court adjourns and the two judges depart. They go down the courthouse steps and walk away to the park, where they see Bob and Mae. The second judge recognizes Bob and stops him. The judge asks him questions and Bob replies that he is behaving himself. Bob is eager to get away. Alone with Mae, Bob explains that the judge is the one that paroled him after his last fight. Back at work in the dive. Graves becomes offensive to Mae. He follows her to her room and is followed by Bob. A fight occurs in which Mae shoots Graves. Bob disappears, fearing the result of his parole if he should not obey the judge. Mae is to be tried before Judge Lewis. She is assigned a young attorney to defend her. The attorney sees her in her cell and gets her story. He can find no trace of Bob, who, however, keeps himself posted in hiding. The young attorney has secured from Mae, however, a locket given to her by her dead mother when she was a little child. The locket has a photo of her mother with the address of a photographer in a country town. The attorney visits the town, finds the old photographer, and is directed to Old Man Aitken as one who can tell about the woman of the photo. Aitken shows great emotion when he sees the photo, and on being told of Mae's coming trial before Lewis, shows great eagerness to go with the attorney. The trial is commenced, and the attorney admits the killing, but pleads self-defense and the girl's irresponsibility. He places her on the stand, and she tells her story. The judge is cold and relentless. She is asked on cross examination, "Where is this man Bob?" She doesn't know. Bob, however, has crept into the back of the courtroom. He presents himself and is examined. He corroborates Mae, but the judge, recognizing him as the boy of the park, discredits his testimony by asking him, "Are you not a paroled prisoner?" Bob admits it, and the effect on the jury is obvious. Mae is found guilty, with a recommendation for mercy. On being brought up for sentence, the attorney calls Aitken to prove the girl's irresponsibility. The prosecuting attorney jumps to his feet and objects. The judge is about to rule out Aitken's testimony, when Mae's attorney interposes, "It will not be necessary to mention the name of the father of this defendant, but I will ask the witness to identify this photograph as the girl's mother." The portrait of the locket is passed to the judge. He conceals his emotion with difficulty. Mae's attorney proceeds, "I will prove by this witness that the defendant's birth and early life are responsible." Aitken then tells his story, fading back to Mary Alden and Lewis, their love, the locket, Lewis' desertion to follow his career, sending her a letter telling her of his decision, the baby's birth, and the disappearance of mother and child. After the story the judge faints, court is adjourned, and the judge is carried out. The next day another judge is on the bench: he who had paroled Bob. He suspends sentence on Mae and she and Bob go away free. Judge Lewis is convalescent at his home in the country. Aitken brings Mae and Bob to him and he expresses his interest in them and determination to devote his life to his daughter.
- Dark Cloud, an Indian trapper, is unjustly accused of robbing the trader's store. Winston King forces him to leave the country and warns him never to return. Arnold and Dorothy, the children of King, while canoeing, lose their paddle and drift toward the falls. Dark Cloud hears their cries for help. Leaping upon a log, he follows them. The Indian is just in time to save the children from the rapids. He brings them ashore. While Arnold and Dorothy are pleading with their rescuer to go home with them, a shot is heard. The children and Dark Cloud discover Petro, a half-breed, who has been shot by his Indian partner. Dying, Petro confesses that they had been quarreling about the division of the money they recently stole from the trader's store. The half-breed points out the direction his partner has taken, confiding to Dark Cloud that the Indian has the money. Dark Cloud hunts down Hawkeye, the thief, captures him and brings him back to where Arnold and Dorothy are waiting with the wounded Petro. By this time King, who has been warned of his children's danger, has reached the place. Dark cloud takes the stolen money from Hawkeye's belt and hands it to the trader. Refusing to accept any reward, the Indian walks proudly away.
- Miss Sullivan, the bawlerout for Charker & Co., loan bankers to the poor, is the terror of every unfortunate who has to borrow money on his salary. If they do not pay up promptly she is the one who goes to their place of employment and "bawls them out." Young Dick Lewis, a bank clerk, to help his fellow clerk. Jack Gray, borrows $200 of Charker & Co. The bawlerout is sent to his home to find out all about him. She pretends to be a book agent and talks with his mother, a kindly old gentlewoman. Satisfied that the boy is all he said, Charker & Co., advance him the money. Dick is engaged to Edith Downs, the pretty daughter of the bank cashier. She is a selfish, heartless girl, caring more for dress than she does for anything else. When Dick, owing to the fact that he has no evening clothes, finds himself unable to go to a ball with her, she calls his rival on the 'phone and makes an appointment to go with him, Dick's friend refuses to help Dick pay back the money he borrowed for his sake; so the bawlerout is sent to the bank to disgrace the boy. But as she begins she sees his mother entering with the bank president. The sight of the gentle old lady softens the girl and she goes away without accomplishing her purpose. John Howard, a reformer, disguises as a workman to find out the truth about the loan shark establishment. He interests the bawlerout and together they find out that President Bendis of the bank in which Dick is employed is the real head of Charker & Co. Edith's father, to keep up with his daughter's extravagance, borrows money from the bank which he is unable to repay. The girl, learning of this and dreading to see her father disgraced, suggests that as Dick loves her, he take the blame. The boy agrees. Miss Sullivan, who has become friendly with Dick's mother, is a constant visitor at the house. But she has never permitted herself to soften toward Dick, who, despite this and the fact of his engagement to Edith, falls in love with the erstwhile bawlerout. Howard and Miss Sullivan secure the necessary evidence against Charker's. In the bank the money is missed and Dick accused. He says nothing and is about to be arrested when Howard enters with the bawlerout. Bendis is told that he is wanted by the police and Miss Sullivan, seeing Dick handcuffed, asks the reason and is told. One glance from the boy to the shrinking cashier convinces her as to just who the thief is. She "bawls out" Downs and breaks him so that he readily confesses. As he and Bendis are taken away, Edith turns to Dick and informs him that she is done with him, she has become engaged to the other man. With a great sigh of relief, Dick holds out his arms to Miss Sullivan, and she, despite her past coldness, enters his embrace. And it is thus that Dick's mother finds them a little later.
- Young Grace Harkaway, by her uncle's order, is commanded to marry Sir Harcourt Courtly, an elderly fop. She meets and falls in love with this gentleman's son, Charles, who has been posing as a student, but is in reality a roysterer and one of the gayest young bloods in town. Young Courtly and his friend, Dazzle, plan with Lady Gay Spanker, a belle and noted huntsman, to draw out old Sir Harcourt, who has fallen in love with her, so that Grace may be freed to marry the man she loves. Sir Harcourt, believing that Lady Gay reciprocates the affection, plans to elope with her. Grace's uncle overhears their conversation and indignantly changes his plans regarding Grace who is permitted to marry Charles. Sir Harcourt discovers that he has been made a fool of by Lady Gay Spanker, who returns to her husband with the combined thanks of the happy pair.
- Harvy, the heavy, and Bella, the ingenue, of a cheap theatrical company are encumbered with an infant girl. The husband, a worthless, dissipated character, annoyed by the presence of the child and the care the wife is compelled to give it. deserts them both. The show then "busts" and the mother and the infant are left stranded in a small California town. Reluctantly the mother is compelled to abandon the child upon the steps of a Quaker household. The childless Quaker couple regard the waif as an answer from heaven to their prayers, and taking the infant in, adopt it and rear it as their own. Years now pass and the grown up girl (Mercy) is now soon at the age of eighteen leading the simple life of the Quaker. She is being courted by the son of a neighboring family (also Quakers), who is a school teacher. One day, actuated by some strange mood, Mercy improvises a theatrical costume, and delights several of her companions with real "play-acting." She is discovered by her foster mother and reprimanded. Later she is attracted by the posters of a musical comedy that is to play the local "opery-house" that night. Dancing with her shadow in the road in imitation of one of the pictures, she is surprised and led home by her shocked sweetheart. That night she climbs out her bedroom window, slides down the pillars of the portico and goes to the "opery-house." On a pile of boxes in an alley alongside the theater she watches the show through a window. An actor coming out in the alley for a smoke discovers her and takes her behind the scenes. Carried away by the glamour of her surroundings, she forgets all her early training in a "reversion of type" and goes off with the company, leaving her foster-parents to mourn the girl they had come to love so dearly. With this company Mercy travels from town to town, thoroughly happy in her new environment. The actor who first discovered her becomes her "bag-bearer" and devoted cavalier, and is infatuated with her. A manager, who chances to see her, is struck by her demure, appealing type of beauty and thinking she might prove a second Edna May, brings her on to New York. This particular manager makes a specialty of "girly" musical shows of the Ziegfeld type, and in one of these he places Mercy. In this same company the mother who had deserted her years ago, having lost her youth and beauty, is now engaged as a wardrobe woman. The two women, without suspecting their relations, are strongly attracted to each other. Mercy makes a fairly good hit in her environment and when a boost in her salary makes it possible for her to have an apartment, she takes the wardrobe woman as a housekeeper. Her Quaker sweetheart traces her and calls upon her in a vain effort to win her back to her old life. The actor, who has figured in her life before, is still madly in love with her, and endeavors to reinstate himself in her affections. She repulses him. Crazy with drink, he draws a revolver and fires at her, but misses her. Alarmed, her mother rushes in between them just in time to receive the second shot in her bosom. The actor is led off by the police. Mercy goes to the scene of her early life, with her former Quaker sweetheart, and is received with a glad welcome by her foster-parents.
- Buck Gade, the son of the owner of the large Gourd Ranch, had dismounted and was on his knees stopping for a drink of water at a ford of the San Pedro River, when his hat was sent spinning by a bullet, and he promptly spread out flat on the ground. Immediately a horseman emerged from a clump of cotton woods across the river. Whereupon the foxy Buck Gade turned on his side and sent a "forty-fiver" across the shallows. It spurted sand into the air close to the right of the rider, who wheeled and scurried off at top speed. Buck tried again, but the cartridge jammed. He was much disappointed because the fugitive was the Gopher, and the Gopher was the brains of the Price faction. Buck's father and Price, the owner of the Fork Ranch, were engaged in a desperate feud. Previous to this war Buck had been devoted in his attention to pretty Marylee, Prince's daughter, but her father so deep in his hatred of Gade, senior, forced his daughter to marry Gopher, his foreman. Marylee still loves Buck and meets him at every chance. This becomes known to Gopher, who determines to kill him and, prompted by jealousy, he is very cruel to Marylee. The war goes on and several attempts are made to kill Buck. Finally Gopher compels Marylee to write Buck a note, telling him that she is held prisoner by her husband, who threatens to send her to an asylum and begs him to come to her rescue at once. Buck starts off at once, unaccompanied, to affect her rescue. He reaches the house and just as he is about to signal Marylee through the window Gopher, assisted by one of his men knocks him down and the men proceed to tie him up with ropes. They then carry him off to an abandoned outhouse. Gopher then dismisses his men, stating that he will fix Buck. Buck securely bound has been placed on a stool and Gopher before carrying out his revenge taunts and man-handles him generally. Gopher sitting opposite his prisoner proceeds to sharpen a knife on his heel. He shows Buck how he intends to kill him. Gopher leans forward and smites him on the lip. Buck throws himself backward on the stool, kicking straight up as he topples over. The toe of his heavy riding boot catches the Gopher under the chin, and he falls down as though hit with a pile driver. Buck rolls over, staggers to an upright position, and rasps the rope around his wrists up and down the sharp point of the anvil. He releases himself before Gopher regains consciousness and makes his escape. His horse has been put away and he is forced to walk back to his own ranch. Shortly afterward be meets Marylee again and she plainly exhibits signs of the Gopher's abuse. Buck tries to persuade her to run away with him, but she returns to her husband. Marylee is constantly accompanied in all her rides by a Mexican boy attendant, who is her devoted slave and watches over her carefully. A week later Buck is riding over his ranch. To his right is a sharp rise on the ground topped by a thick cover of thorny brush. Lying in wait behind a screening of this brush the Gopher, with rifle in hand, is waiting for Buck to ride by so he may kill him. A sharp report from the brush makes Buck whirl in his saddle. Instantly he throws himself off over the horse's shoulder, jerking his rifle free from the holster as he goes. A man totters up behind a bush on the crest holding a gun. He sways a few seconds and disappears. Next a woman runs around the base of the ridge and speeds toward Buck. "Don't shoot," she cries, "Don't shoot. It's only me, Buck." Marylee is sobbing against Buck's bosom when a cavalcade of horsemen approach, composed of her father and a number of his men. Buck immediately jumps in front of Marylee and awaits their attack. Old man Price rides forward with outstretched hand making signs of peace and looks upon the scene with evident signs of approval. Lying upon some shale was the body of Gopher. Old man Price gazes at the body for a moment and shakes his head, remarking, "Well, he surely is dead." Turning toward Buck, he continues, "The question is, who done killed Gopher? Did you get him, Buck?" Buck shakes his head. Everybody turns to the Gopher's widow, but she does not utter a sound nor make a move, but continues to nestle in Buck's arms. One of Price's men grunts and throws Gopher's body over the back of a horse and slowly rides away. Meanwhile the Mexican boy, Marylee's faithful attendant, modestly keeps in the background, stirring gravel with his boot very uncomfortably, and avoiding old man Price's eye.
- The story opens with a love affair between the boy and the girl. In riding along a mountain trail, they dismount in order that her saddle may be fixed. The boy's horse is startled and runs away. He mounts her horse and goes after him. The girl in trying to reach some flowers below the edge of the trail falls. A surveyor, looking through his instrument, sees the girl clinging to brush on the side of the cliff, calling for help. He hurries to her and rescues her. He is invited to her home and is made welcome by her parents, whose gratitude knows no bounds. The boy objects to the friendship which grows up between the girl and the surveyor, but she disregards his feelings in the matter, and this friendship ripens into love. The boy is heart-broken, and what he regards as the girl's faithlessness causes him to become a woman hater. The girl and the surveyor are married. She gets a message that her mother is dying, and makes preparations to go immediately to her mother's home. Her husband accompanies her. They become lost in the desert and endure the horrors of a sandstorm. Here they are attacked by Indians, who have been excited to enmity by certain occurrences in the little western town. The boy has followed the girl and her husband into the desert, intending to make an end of the latter, but when the Indians attack them, he joins them and makes common cause with them. The boy is wounded, but they are successful in their resistance to the Indians, killing so many that they are enabled to reach a place of safety. The boy thus proves by his unselfish devotion to their cause that he is a real man.
- Helen and Joe are in love. He receives a letter from his uncle offering him a good position in his law office. He shows Helen the letter and she shows him one from the Standard, also a check for a short story. They have a quarrel over a slight thing and he leaves for his uncle's place. Six years go by and Helen is now a very successful writer on a large daily. The managing editor sends for her and tells her she must go west to cover a large graft story and land the men for another paper. She leaves that night and reports to the other editor. He gives her a list of the aldermen whom they suspect and the name of the politician who is handling the graft money for the Asphant Paving Co. Helen sees Phelan and he takes her out to dinner that evening. A man speaks to him. Phelan borrows Helen's pad to write a note. When she gets home she notices on the next page in her pad the impression from the hand of Phelan. She reports to the editor and she, with the help of a man, installs a dictograph and that night she sees and hears the graft money passed, but into the hands of Joe Walsh. She goes to her room dazed, but sees him the next day, when he shows her the money he took, also other money, but it was taken to expose the other councilmen. They go at once to the editor, where the money and affidavit is deposited in the office safe and she starts to write the great story. That night the council chamber is crowded. Helen finishes, gets a machine, goes to the station, gets detective and starts for the council and arrives just in time to save Walsh from being arrested, after he accuses the other men. While Helen places all under arrest, the boys can be heard with the extras.
- Don Caesar is reduced to naught but his title, to save a poor youth, Lazarillo. Don Caesar fights the captain of the king's guards and kills him. He is condemned to he shot and pending the execution, is confined to jail with Lazarillo. Don Jose, the Prime Minister, suggests to Don Caesar that, although he is to die, he should marry before the day of the execution and thus perpetuate his title. Don Caesar consents with the promise that he may drink with the soldiers before he is shot. While he is doing this, young Lazarillo extracts the bullets from the soldiers' guns. Just previous to the execution Don Jose enters with Maritana, a flower girl, and she is wedded to Don Caesar. He is taken to the yard, the soldiers fire, Don Caesar falls, but when the men leave the court-yard, he escapes; later he appears in disguise at a state ball in search of the bride whose face he has never seen. On revealing himself to Don Jose Don Caesar signs a paper disclaiming forever all title in favor of his supposed wife. An instant later he catches sight of Maritana, whose name, the Countess de Bazan, has been heralded and, tearing the document, starts in pursuit. Maritana, while briefly enjoying the King's protection, has repelled him. After humorous and dramatic episodes, Don Caesar, vaulting through Maritana's window, surprised a visiting noble. Lazarillo, who is in Maritana's employ, apprises Don Caesar that the visitor is the King. Don Caesar demands to know the identity of a stranger in his wife's apartments. The King boldly asserts, "I am Don Caesar de Bazan." Don Caesar forcibly replies, "If you are Don Caesar de Bazan, I am the King of Spain." The King, in his dilemma, summons the guards to arrest Don Caesar, but the timely arrival of Maritana (who has been warned by Lazarillo) brings events to a climax and the union of Don Caesar and the flower girl is sanctioned by the King.
- Tom Spangler, boss of Dog Iron ranch, has been married secretly to Mary Bailey, the daughter of a rancher in another part of the state. He writes Mary not to join him at Dog Iron, as they had planned, because the owner has forbidden the men to have their wives at the round-up. A few days later a dark boy presents himself at the ranch and asks for work. Spangler knows his wife disguised in sombrero and puma-skin trousers, but he hires "Bobby Jones" as horse wrangler. Sid Suddath, an old hand at Bailey's, arrives and recognizes the daughter of his former employer. He proceeds to get familiar, and "Bobby" resents this. One day the cowboys go in swimming. The horse wrangler declines to join them, and returns to the camp. Suddath follows her into a tent, and after a struggle, "Bobby" defending herself with a cheap clasp knife, stabs her tormentor. The sheriff is informed. Spangler refuses to surrender "the young cut-throat." It looks as though the posse and the ranchers must fight it out, when the girl rushes among them and give herself up. When the sheriff has heard her story, he pronounces her justified.
- Oliver and Elizabeth wed. He is a famous lawyer, careless of his personal conduct, but has implicit faith in Elizabeth. She is a woman of strong mind, a magazine writer of repute, and believes he should guide himself by the same code that governs her. Two of their associates are profligates, Charles, an artist, and Catherine. Oliver trifles with Catherine and this so embitters Elizabeth, that she pretends to receive the attentions of Charles, although it is made clear that she has remained pure. Nevertheless, she purposely permits her husband to believe otherwise. He has considered her like Caesar's wife, but his faith is shattered. A child is born to her and the father doubts its parentage. Worse than this, society also believes her guilty. A divorce separates Oliver from Elizabeth. She is ostracized with her child. In the end the evidence of her purity, which she had purposely concealed, becomes known to Oliver through the dying confession of Charles, and the husband and wife are reconciled and Elizabeth is vindicated, but only after she has seen and regretted the folly of her rebellion against the first law of society. The death of their child plays a large part.
- A man and his wife living on the lowlands. She is a consumptive and he is out of work. A stranger comes with a sprained ankle, and the husband takes him in and gives him a bed. Later the wife's condition growing worse, the stranger now well, about to bid adieu, the husband proposes a holdup to raise the necessary funds to take the wife out of the country. The stranger, being a fugitive from justice, readily consents. The two go to town. The husband leaves a note for his wife, telling her to be ready when they return. They rob the express office, and escape to the hills. The posse go in pursuit of the men. They elude the posse. The stranger being struck by the woman's beauty strikes the husband a blow on the head with his pistol, goes back and gets the wife, lies to her and tells her he is taking her to her husband. They start across the desert. The husband gains consciousness, finds the wife gone and thinks her untrue to him, and starts in pursuit of them. The girth from the woman's saddle breaks, giving the husband a chance to gain on them, having seen them .from the top of a mountain upon which he climbed. After repairing the saddle girth, the stranger takes the woman further into the desert. Lust overcomes him. He dismounts, trying to find a secluded spot. In looking for this they pass a grave. The stranger attacks the woman. She repulses him. The effort being too much for her, she faints. The stranger sees the husband, runs on and hides behind the grave and takes deliberate aim at the unsuspecting husband. The revolver refuses to fire. A bad cartridge causes a click, which is heard by the husband. A duel follows. The woman regains consciousness, sees her husband, runs to him smilingly. He sees her, takes deliberate aim, mortally wounding an innocent woman. The stranger seeing the wife fall at the husband's feet, shoots him. The stranger clears the wife, remorse getting the better of him. He sees the posse, tries to escape, but he is captured, however, and the sheriff asks him where the other man is. Then remembering that he himself had caused all of the trouble, takes the posse and shows them the grave, telling them that he killed the other man, allowing the husband freedom. But alas, too late, the woman's wound proves fatal and she dies in her husband's arms, after forgiving her husband, and he, poor fellow, is left with the body of the one he loved.
- An American officer quartered in Mexico saves a young Mexican dancing girl from insult and rough treatment at the hands of Pablo and Marto, two roughneck Mexicans. In revenge the two Mexicans plan to kill the American officer, and the dancer, in gratitude (now grown into love through constant association), plans to save him. Going to the officer's room in the barracks, getting there only a shade ahead of the assassins, she finds the room empty, and hides behind a curtain, immediately after which the officer comes in and sits at his desk. At the same moment the hand of one of the Mexicans appears on the sill ready to fire at the officer, but before his finger can press the trigger the dancer plunges her knife into his hand, pinioning it to the window. His cries of pain and the report of the gun going off bring the officer and his men to the window and the attempt on his life is discovered and the assassins taken away to a cell. The fainting of the dancer behind the curtain brings the realization to the officer of her work in his behalf and they find happiness in each other's arms.
- William Rock, assistant cashier in a business concern, has a sick daughter. The doctor urges that she be taken immediately to another climate, and Rock, unable to get an advance on his pay, is desperate. He has been in the habit of taking the deposits to the bank every Saturday, and then going direct from the bank home. He determines that week to steal the money. On Saturday Rock is followed on the street by a couple of crooks. He goes into a telephone booth to phone his daughter May and her fiancé, a young physician, that they can start south with the younger sister at once. Taking the money out of the bank satchel, he stuffs it in his inside vest pocket and leaves with the empty bag in his hand. He goes down an alleyway to get rid of the satchel, but is assaulted by the gunmen and the bag taken from him. A salesman from Rock's firm sees the attack. He takes the half unconscious cashier back to the office. When the money is found upon his person, the company believes that Rock, knowing that he was shadowed, put it there for safety. In gratitude they loan him the amount for his daughter's use.
- Alice Reed, reporter on The Herald, hurts her finger in her typewriter, and goes to Dr. Trine's office. She is the unseen witness of the abduction of the doctor, blindfolded, by a suspicious-looking character. Following in a taxi, she shadows them to a nearby tenement house and into a miserable room where lies a wounded man. She then is discovered by the crooks and made a prisoner. The wounded man is able to hold a gun and he agrees to keep her safely covered while his pal goes with the doctor's prescription to the drug store. Under cover Alice is commanded to do something for the helpless crook. She contrives to get her hands on the prescription and scrawls on the back an appeal for help. She also changes the formula so that the victim shall be drugged into insensibility. The clerk in the pharmacy rushes help to Alice. The crooks are captured. And the girl lands a big story for her paper.