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- Sherlock Holmes enters his drawing room to find it being burgled, but on confronting the villain is surprised when the latter disappears. Holmes initially attempts to ignore the event by lighting a cigar, but upon the thief's reappearance, Holmes tries to reclaim the sack of stolen goods, drawing a pistol from his dressing gown pocket and firing it at the intruder, who disappears. After Holmes recovers his property, the bag vanishes from his hand into that of the thief, who promptly disappears through a window. At this point the movie ends abruptly with Holmes looking "baffled".
- The millionaire's child is kidnapped. Sherlock Holmes after many thrilling adventures and narrow escapes rescues the child.
- Sound asleep in his comfortable armchair next to a high-pressure retort, a mystic silver-haired alchemist can't even notice the strange manifestations emerging from the vessel's bottom. Is this a dream, or a cornucopia of secreted desires?
- A pictorial detective story of merit, with many lightning changes of disguise by the detective in his pursuit of the lawbreakers.
- A young woman passing through a cemetery at night is suddenly startled by a voice coming from one of the graves. She wishes to rush away, but the ghost appearing compels her to remain. He explains to the terrified girl that she must go to the kingdom of Satan and get a bottle of the Water of Life, which she must bring back to him. The girl consents to do as he desires and starts forth on her expedition after the precious fluid. She summons a lot of soldiers and friends to her aid, and we follow the whole army down into the bowels of the earth. Arriving at the gate of Satan's kingdom, they mount a chariot of fire and, arriving at the devil's palace, give fight to the demons mounting guard over their king, and after having defeated them rush into the palace. Now Satan, seeing his life in peril, disappears in a cloud of smoke, and thunder, and is seen again as he dashes through his vast domains gathering together his people, and while they await the conquering chariot another fight ensues. The devil is beaten again and the bottle of life is stolen by the leader of the victorious army, and they are all about to depart when a terrible explosion takes place and the chariot and its occupants are dashed to the ground. All are killed: but the brave woman who undertook the expedition, and she goes forth alone, meeting on her way dragons and vampires, who try to stop her progress towards earth. She defeats them all, however, and arriving at the ghost's grave raps on the marble slab, the ghost appears, drinks the water and is immediately transformed into a beautiful prince. The last scene of this interesting film shows the happy marriage of the once-deceased man and the beautiful and courageous bride.
- Our picture relates to a crime committed by a Gorilla who escapes from his cage and through circumstantial evidence a young man, whom we will call in our story Jim, is accused and is just about to be convicted when, through the aid of our hero, Sherlock Holmes, he is freed just in time. Our picture opens with a girl and sweetheart, who are sitting in her room discussing plans for their marriage. The message is brought for Jim, compelling him to leave at once. Shipyard Scene. The Gorilla escapes from his cage from a vessel with his master, the captain, in hot pursuit. The frightened animal climbs a porch of this girl's house and into the window of her sitting room, and after a terrific struggle between her and the beast he kills her, before the captain can prevent him, The captain immediately returns to his vessel with the Gorilla and stays in hiding, fearing the consequences should anyone detect him. Discovery of Crime. The butler, who returns to the dining room is horrified to discover the room in great disorder and his mistress murdered. He immediately notifies the police, Police arrive and, after questioning the butler, they learn of her sweetheart's visit, and accuse Jim of the crime. Railroad Station. Jim, who is unaware of what happened, is about to board a train, when the police rush upon the scene and arrest him. Sherlock Holmes's Study. Holmes is reading a book when his old friend and college chum Watson arrives, who has read of the crime in the paper, showing same to Holmes. Holmes, after reading and by constant pleading of Watson, decides to lend his aid in unraveling the crime. Holmes at Work. Arrival at girl's residence. Herein are shown methods employed by Holmes to secure evidence or clue to discover the culprit. In His Study. Holmes returns to his study in deep thought, with his mind concentrated upon the crime. He is trying to unravel the mystery when he takes his old violin down from its peg and begins to play fantastic music which puts him in a trance to solve the problem. Herein are shown remarkable visions of the different clues and theories in Holmes's brain. The first vision is of Jim committing this awful crime, but vision fades away before the crime is committed. Second vision is of a burglar: that also fades same as the first. Holmes, who has learned of the Gorilla being in port, lends his thought to this and the vision appears of the Gorilla escaping from the ship, climbing the porch of the house and into the window and committing the crime that Jim is accused of. Holmes immediately jumps up with a start, and after numerous failures, discovers the ship, Gorilla and master, accusing same of the tragedy. He begs him to go to the courthouse with him. Court Room. Poor Jim is convicted to be hanged, when our hero Holmes rushes in with sufficient evidence that frees Jim. This picture is beautifully and elaborately toned throughout. Photography and scenery unexcelled.
- Who killed this man to rob him of his money in this notorious neighborhood of Paris? The usual local scoundrel such as the one that has almost been lynched by the mob and arrested by the police? Not at all. In fact the poor man is innocent, even though appearances are deceiving. The real culprit is a respectably-looking man who, to divert suspicion, has put some blood of his victim on his fingers and some of the stolen money in his pockets while he was asleep. But Pierrot, the bad boy's friend, won't buy it. He returns to the scene of crime where he discovers a calling card and a handkerchief stained with blood and immediately goes to the address written on the card. There, he discovers the man who caused all this havoc, a rich and and respected person, but who lives a double life. Outraged, Pierrot accuses the vile man...
- In a mansion full of secret rooms and passageways, people are dying shortly after seeing the ghost of a woman in gray, as an old legend dictates. Called in to solve the mystery, Sherlock Holmes has doubts about the supernatural aspect of the crimes and focuses on a more earthly culprit.
- Jack Windom experiences a sensation of awe at the reception of the Hindoo dagger from his old chum, Tom, who was traveling in India. Hanging the dagger on the wall. Jack goes out. For some time Jack has discerned a coolness in his wife, and his jealous misgivings were verified when he returned and found her in company with a stranger. Seizing the dagger from the wall he chases the recreant lover from the house and then follows the wife to the bathroom, wither she has flown in terror. Mercilessly he plunges the dagger and flies the place. The lover in hiding sees him leave and returns, and calling aid succeeds in reviving the wife, who afterwards with careful treatment recovers and marries her paramour. However, either from the baneful influence of this diabolical dagger, or the woman's capricious nature, just one year later the second husband enacts the same scene, but with fatal results. He leaves the place, and has hardly disappeared when the first husband, who was thought to be dead, is drawn by an irresistible power back to view what to him seems to be the scene he left one year before, for there on the bathroom floor is the woman just as he apparently left her, with the dagger beside her. The sight drives him mad and the dagger is made to perform the final act of its mission.
- Thirteen scenes: opium den, Jasper's study, river bank, Bow Street runner, country church.
- A young man suddenly inherits a fortune. The man's friend decides to make himself master of that fortune, and so by the aid of an unscrupulous assistant he manages to kidnap his friend, to impersonate him, and to actually obtain the money. Now, to reach this point a number of startling adventures have to be gone through. The real owner of the fortune is lured into a cab, and is drugged in that vehicle. He is taken on board a ship and placed in a cabin in charge of one of the villains of the piece. But Holmes has been busy. Early on in the game he got the number of the cab and traced it in its wanderings to the house in which the unconscious victim was temporarily placed. Holmes runs the cabman to earth, binds his arms and renders him helpless. Then he starts in pursuit of the ship. He gets on board. He takes the cabin next to that in which the drugged victim lies, and just at the moment when the latter is to be thrown overboard by the man in whose power he is Holmes appears, effects a rescue and knocks the villain down. The final scene of the play shows the impersonator taking possession of the money, when, just as he is handling it, the real owner appears. The impersonator, after denials and struggles, is arrested, and all ends happily, thanks to the skill of Sherlock Holmes.
- Hallett, a stock speculator, urgently needs $10,000, and he borrows that sum from his friend Bradford, giving as security for the loan the famous Hallett diamond necklace, valued at $50,000. The necklace is placed in Bradford's safe. A week passes. Hallett calls, prepared to pay the loan, and demands his diamond necklace. Bradford goes to the safe, takes out the case, and Hallett opens it. The necklace is not there. Bradford and his wife are astonished and Hallett, furious, tells Bradford that unless the necklace is in his hands by the following day he will turn the matter over to the police. Bradford sends to New York for a detective. The detective sees the butler place a note under a vase. The detective reads the note, which is to the French maid, asking her to meet the butler in the woods. On the trail! We see the detective following the butler through the woods; the butler with a mysterious air hands the maid a package. The detective draws his handcuffs, creeps nearer. The maid opens the box and takes from it some candy. Midnight. Bradford is in despair. To-morrow will bring disgrace. The detective is baffled. Suddenly footsteps are heard. The two men hide. A figure in white enters the library. It is Bradford's wife. She is walking in her sleep. The two men see her go to the library safe, then, as if remembering something, she goes out into the garden. She searches about the roots of a large plant, and placing something in the bosom of her robe, she goes back into the house, followed by her husband and the detective. The sleeping woman opens the safe, places the diamond necklace into the case, locks the safe and goes out. Bradford runs to the safe, opens it, takes out the case, sees the necklace, and he and the detective collapse in surprise.
- The daughter of a detective solves the case after her father is killed.
- Raymond Brown, financier, dies in the prime of his life, after amassing a snug fortune, leaving his wife and infant son the bulk of his wealth, the major portion of which is willed to the infant heir, conditional with his living until he reaches of age. Should the child die before the time, a cousin, Ralph, shall come into the fortune. The latter, through bad associations, has degenerated into a worthless character, a leech on society. Involved heavily in debt, he determines to make way with the child and secure a fortune. Plans are carefully laid to kidnap the heir during a steamship voyage up the Hudson River. Nell Pierce has just successfully closed up a hard ease and is taking a well-earned vacation. She happens to book passage on the s me vessel on which Mrs. Brown, the baby and the scheming cousins are sailing. Suspicious action on the part of Brown and an accomplice puts Nell on her guard and she watches the pair but does not comprehend their purpose until too late and the child is spirited away. A chase then follows in which many exciting incidents unfold. Nell gives up all thought of a vacation and takes up a slender clew through which she finally brings the cousin to justice. The daring girl detective is forced to travel dangerous underground passages and many times comes within an ace of losing her life but finally rescues the infant heir and restores him to his distracted mother.
- A young draftsman loses his position by reason of the fact that a prolonged strike has closed down the works in which he had been employed. He is on his return home when, in crossing a busy street, he is struck by an automobile in which is the assistant paymaster of a large contracting concern, who is carrying a suit case full of money with which to pay off the men employed in the construction of a large building. The sudden stoppage of the automobile throws the suit case containing the money into close proximity with that of the young draftsman. Strangely enough, the two cases are of exactly the same pattern, and in the confusion attendant on the accident one is mistaken for the other, the young paymaster picking up the draftsman's suit case and vice versa. When each reaches his destination the mistake is discovered, to the amazement of one and the dismay of the other. We see in the picture the result of this complication, in the suspicion cast upon the young paymaster and also in the struggle which goes on in the mind of the man who has become the possessor of the money. The latter, whose widowed mother is living in such extreme poverty that she is on the point of pawning her wedding ring and some other pieces of jewelry to purchase the necessaries of life, is strongly tempted to keep what has fallen into his hands, but his mother's counsel prevails and he seeks out the owner of the money. By a peculiar coincidence the pretty sister of the assistant paymaster had met the draftsman just after the accident and helped bind his wounded hand. When he returns the bag to the police station they meet again and finally, when the contractor to whom the money belonged, and who had recognized in the young man's mother the widow of a friend of his younger days, rewards our young friend by giving him a good position, he meets her frequently, the result being the usual happy ending.
- This film shows another case handled by the wonderful detective Hogarth, and carries us to an entirely different locale and set of situations. The mystery begins when Hogarth receives a call from a foreigner who, being unable to speak English, starts to write his business and drops to the floor dead before finishing. There is no clue upon the man, save the tailor's mark on his overcoat, but for a mind like Hogarth's that is enough. Finding the tailor, he learns the name of the mysterious stranger. He is mystified when the next day's paper announces that the man whom he saw lying dead on the floor is to sail with his daughter for Europe at noon. Being a man of decision as well as intuition, Hogarth makes a quick dash for the boat, and finds himself a fellow-passenger of the man, who is apparently the double of his mysterious caller, and the girl, who is supposed to be his daughter. He soon finds that there is a love story, for one of the deck hands on the liner exchanges notes and signals with the girl, and Hogarth soon learns that the man is her fiancé in disguise. He contrives to enter the stateroom of the girl's supposed father and there finds evidence that the man is in the employ of an unscrupulous Prince who intends to force the girl into marriage, and also that the man's power over the girl comes from a forged note purporting to be from her father, of whose death she is ignorant. How Hogarth convinces the girl of the terrible danger she is in and of his power to save her, and how he confronts the pretended Marquis and after a desperate struggle succeeds in taking him into custody, makes a thrilling and effective climax to an intensely fascinating story. The scenes taken on board the ocean liner are exquisite in atmosphere and photography and lend a splendid reality to an almost perfect film.
- A sudden decline in stocks created a stampede in Wall Street. Many stock jobbing firms tottered on the brink of collapse, among them Brown & Swain, whose clients numbered among them some of the most substantial investors in the metropolis. On the day of the avalanche, Swain frantically asks his partner to raise sufficient money to tide them over. Brown insists nothing can be done as funds are exhauster. At this juncture, Col. Jones calls to deposit with his friend Brown, $150,000 worth of bonds for safekeeping, The Colonel is given a receipt for the same and departs. Swain, who has witnessed the transaction, endeavors to persuade Brown to use these bonds temporarily towards recovering their losses, but is met with a prompt refusal, and Brown secreted the bonds in a private compartment in the firm's large vault. Swain, who has access to the vault but not to Brown's private secret compartment, being driven to desperation engages a noted safe-cracker and crook, Billy Valentine, to burglarize the vault and secure the bonds. Brown discovers his loss and sends for his old friend, Pierce, the Yankee Detective, to unravel the mystery. The message arrives shortly after the death of the old sleuth, who was killed at the post of duty, but his daughter, Nell, decides to make the journey and takes up the case instead. Brown looks upon the girl with much disfavor and refuses to place the case in her hands. Nothing daunted, she bribes the office boy to remain at home on the pretense of being ill and she impersonates a supposed brother and reports for work in his stead. Valentine, the crook, calls at the office of Brown & Swain to secure from the latter the money promised for securing the stolen bonds. Nell recognizes him as an old offender whom her father had sent to Sing Sing five years before. Swain tries to put Valentine off by promises, but the latter forces the broker to turn over the bonds, at the point of a gun, insisting he will hold them until the money promised is forthcoming. Nell shadows Valentine to his haunt, the home of an old hag, in the disguise of a Salvation Army lass. She is captured by Valentine's accomplices and made prisoner. During the night, while the old hag is stupefied by drink, Nell manages to escape by burning the ropes with which her hands and feet were tied, in the flame of a candle. In the meantime, Valentine has received a letter from Swain directing him to the office and stating his money is ready. Nell attempts to reach the office first and is successful, arriving in time to see the bonds delivered and Valentine paid. Here the plucky girl shows her wonderful presence of mind by locking Swain in the huge vault when he steps inside to secure some papers. She then rushes out to arouse the police and accompanies them to Valentine's home just in time to capture both him and his gang. Returning to the office, Nell finds the door looked. Becoming suspicions, she climbs a fire-escape to an adjoining roof and reaches the window of the brokerage office just in time to prevent the distracted Brown from taking his life. Explanations follow and the vault is opened in time to turn Swain over to the waiting police.
- The first scene portrays a room in Mr. Allan's house. He is admiring a necklace of diamonds, when his nephew, Alfred Farley, a disreputable young man, having reached the end of his resources, applies to his uncle for the loan of some money, but he is refused. Spying the necklace, Farley tries to persuade his uncle to give it to him and, being refused again, he becomes angry and springs at his uncle in an endeavor to strangle him to gain possession of the coveted necklace. The effort is in vain, as Allan eludes him and angrily orders him from the house. We next see Mr. Allan at the theater dressing room of Margaret Hayes, a prima donna singer, where he presents her with the necklace just as she is leaving for the stage. Not wishing to leave it in the room, she twists it around her arm, and is followed out by Mr. Allan and her maid. In her absence Farley enters her dressing room and. after searching around finally discovers the empty box that had contained the necklace. Realizing that further search would be futile, he leaves and decides to go to her apartments and arriving there he lets himself down from the roof on a rope. Masked, he searches around the room and, being unsuccessful, hides behind a heavy curtain at the balcony door and awaits Miss Hayes' arrival from the theater. As she enters the room she notices the confusion, and detecting him she grasps the telephone and calls for Sherlock Holmes, the great detective, but before she can say anything he rushes from his hiding place and forces the telephone away from her. Sherlock Holmes, on the other end of the wire, hears only a scream, and immediately locating the number, rushes to her home. Farley in the meantime has escaped to the roof and when Holmes arrives and sees Miss Hayes unconscious. he notices the rope and quickly clambers up after the scoundrel. Farley from above notices this and loosens the rope, hut Holmes luckily saves himself by clinging to the balcony which leads to the apartment of a gentleman and his servant. He explains his presence there and, with the aid of the men rushes to the roof in pursuit of the fugitive. Farley, from behind a chimney, shoots at the approaching men and after his revolver is emptied runs, but in jumping from one roof to another he falls and is captured and bound. He is then taken to the apartment of the singer, who has no difficulty in recognizing him as the thief and Farley is forced to give up the necklace and is turned over into the hands of the detective's assistants.
- The killing of John Dare caused more than ordinary excitement in the inland city in which it occurred, due to his prominence in business and social circles, as well as his mysterious death. The body was found in front of the home of a respected and prosperous resident of the city, to whose daughter Dare had been paying attention. Circumstances preceding the discovery of Dare's corpse, seriously involved three people as being implicated in his death, and it was the careful and painstaking investigation and sound and logical deduction of the local chief of police, which solved the mystery and conclusively proved that Dare had been killed accidentally and in a peculiar manner.
- Nell Pierce, favorite film detective of the motion picture kingdom tackled the most difficult case in her notable career. That she succeeded in running to earth the perpetrator of the day's biggest criminal sensation seemed nothing short of marvelous, but Nell is something of a marvel in herself and rarely suffers defeat. Perhaps the story does not unfold as most plots do, but the mystery is not explained until the very last which keeps one "keyed up" with excitement and interest. A series of remarkable changes of disguise characterize Miss Pierce's work in this film as above the average character impersonations. In short, "The Woman Who Dared" is an unusual production.
- A rich man is kidnapped by "The Black Hood", a criminal organization. Sherlock Holmes is called on the case by the rich man's wife.
- A paranoid bird-watcher takes to the peeping-tom business.
- The Blakes are a couple who because of difference in temperament and a failure on both sides to make concessions have drifted apart. The wife is only mildly interested when her husband proposes to secure a separation. In fact, her principal feeling is one of relief. But her indifference quickly vanishes when the court decree is handed down granting the separation, but awarding the custody of the child to the husband. Mrs. Blake wants her little girl and failing to obtain her legally resorts to trickery. She disguises herself and is engaged as governess of her own little daughter now living in the home of her husband's aunt. The child, who has wept much for her mother, on being told the identity of the new governess gladly agrees to go with her. The two go walking and the governess returns with the news that the child has wandered away. Her hat found on the shore of a lake in the park gives color to the belief that she has been drowned. This theory is accepted and the governess is discharged. She goes away happy in the belief that her stratagem has succeeded, for she had hidden the child in her poor rooms, meaning to take her away and begin a new life in some other city. Her pitiful plan might have been a success for its very daring, had it not been for Violet Gray, the detective. Violet, suspicious of the supposed governess, tracked her to her rooms and from the fire escape saw her fondling a boy, for little Maria had also been disguised. The detective brings the father to the house and he at once recognizes his child. Violet tears the disguise from the mother and Blake sees his unhappy wife. She pleads with him and the child clings to her. Blake realizes that with the daughter the mother comes first. He loves his child and wants to make her happy. Legally he is entitled to her custody, but morally he realizes that he is not. Sadly he places the child in her mother's arms and with bowed head starts out alone. But this Marie will not allow. She has her mother, but she wants her father, too. She runs after him and begs him to remain with them. Both parents realize that they paid too much attention to little things, that they have overlooked the big thing in their lives, their child. They decide to forgive and forget and to begin life anew, remembering that they have one treasure which they can never divide, the love of a little girl.
- A young novice leaves the convent for a knight. Unlike the better-known 1959 film "The Miracle", this version is set in medieval times.
- An adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story about a father trying to gain control of his daughter's inheritance does not include Watson.
- McCarthy was killed. The very day his slain body was found he and his son has violently quarreled. A little later the youth was seen following the father with a gun under his arm. McCarthy evidently has no enemies; there was no tangible motive for the crime to be connected with anybody but the murdered man's son. Yes, his son was innocent. By marvelous deduction and phenomenal precaution and intuition, Sherlock Holmes unraveled the startling mystery and fastened the guilt upon the real perpetrator of the crime. Jack Turner and his men are seeking gold in Australia. They are disappointed in their search and Turner is threatened with mutiny by the men. At that moment a convoy of a rich prospector passes and is held up and robbed of all his gold by Turner's man. James McCarthy, the owner, is sent away on a horse with his little daughter in his arms. Fifteen years later, James Turner is living happily in England, the owner of a large farm. Meeting McCarthy in poor circumstances, and fearing disclosure, Turner otters McCarthy money for his silence. Alice Turner and Jack McCarthy meet and fall in love with each other. Jack asks Turner for Alice's hand, but the boy is rejected, and, downhearted he goes to his father, to whom he relates his troubles. McCarthy has an idea. He goes to Turner and threatens to tell Alice of her father's past life if he will not consent to his daughter's marriage to his son. Turner again bribes McCarthy with money, but Jack has witnessed the bribery and he demands an explanation from his father, which is refused and an argument ensues. Two farm hands hear the argument. A few minutes later McCarthy is found by his son, murdered on the road. All appearances are against Jack as being the murderer of his father and Alice Turner, his fiancée appeals to Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock, in his investigation, picks up a pipe and a piece of broken bottle. This clue leads him to Turner, whom he immediately suspects. Under the grilling third degree of Sherlock, Turner confesses his guilt, and taking a revolver, ends it all, thus atoning for two crimes. Upon McCarthy's confession. Jack is released and he and Alice are made happy.
- The strained expression on the face of one maid servant in a group of six, gives to the mind of Sherlock Holmes, the master of all detectives, the clue to the unraveling of this remarkable and unusual mystery. The maid and the butler planned and carried out a daring robbery in which they secured a mysterious ritual which told of a hidden treasure and gave directions for the finding of the money and jewels. Following the directions, the butler and the maid locate the hidden fortune, but coming suddenly in possession of such enormous riches, turned the head of this daring woman. The decision was reached in an instant, "I will have it all," and just as the butler handed out the treasure laden box, she allowed the heavy flag stone to crash down upon him. Imprisoning him in this death trap where the treasure had lain for years. When he arrived on the scene. Holmes wanted a clue. By clever grouping of the servants of the household, he flashed the old parchment hearing the ritual and watched their faces. Only the maid recognized the ritual and her startled look gave Holmes his entering wedge. The forcing of a confession from the woman is quickly brought about in most dramatic fashion.
- A torn piece of cloth hanging on a nail proved the undoing of Moriarty. Sherlock Holmes' keen methods and his daring actions, when convinced that he is on the right trail, have unraveled many a complicated mystery, but in none have his remarkable analytic powers been more forcefully demonstrated than in "The Beryl Coronet." The very valuable coronet having been left with Banker Holder as security for a loan, is stolen by a daring thief. The fiancée of Holder's beautiful daughter Mary rescues the coronet, after an exciting encounter with the thieves, only to be accused of the theft of two jewels broken from if in the struggle, when it is discovered in his possession by Holder and his family, who were aroused by the commotion. Mary never doubts her sweetheart, however, and with the assistance of the great detective, the real culprits are brought to justice. Starting with a piece of torn cloth as his only clue. Holmes rapidly works out in his own peculiar manner, the solution of the mystery.
- "The Woman in White" is the story of a bold substitution made because a young wife refused to transfer her property to her scheming husband, Laura being the wife and Sir Percival Glyde being the husband. The Woman in White of the story is a girl of about Laura's general age and personal appearance, who has exhibited mental peculiarities from childhood. They were harmless in a way, one of the principal eccentricities being that of always dressing in white. When she finally became a source of distress to her own mother, the latter preferred to have her placed in a private establishment rather than a pauper asylum, and the mother thus played a part in the strange deception which was practiced by Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco. In order to obtain an enormous estate which would descend to Sir Percival in case of Laura's death without issue, the feeble minded and feeble bodied Woman in White was drilled to impersonate Laura while the latter was incarcerated in a private madhouse. Such is the plot of the story with Count Fosco as the principal conspirator and a little Italian named Professor Pesca as the real instrument of justice, although Laura's lover, Walter Hartwright, was an active agent. The photodrama opens with a revelation of the existence of one of those brotherhoods organized in Latin countries for political or criminal purposes. The members of the secret society are all gathered when Count Fosco betrays them by signaling to the police. A raid and terrific struggle follow; but little Professor Pesca escapes to the consternation of the Judas who has betrayed his fellow-members of the society. The love story of Walter Hartwright follows. He is the drawing master at the home of Laura and falls deeply in love with her. His love is reciprocated by the charming young girl, but the usual obstacle interposes that makes stories oi this kind interesting. Laura's husband has already been selected for her and the discovery of her affection for the drawing master results in his discharge. An end being made to the intimate relations she enjoyed with Walter Hartwright, and the young girl being completely under the dominance of her English father, she is compelled to marry the baronet that he has chosen, Sir Percival Glyde. Sir Percival Glyde is one of the decadent gentlemen of title who come to this country every year in search of some weak-minded heiress; and as his main purpose in matrimony is that of obtaining property he falls into the scheme of substitution suggested by bold Count Fosco. He has borrowed money from Fosco, and is such a moral idiot himself that he consents to have his wife drugged and incarcerated in a madhouse when she refuses to transfer her inheritance to him. It is almost unbelievable at this stage of our civilization that such a scheme could be carried out without immediate discovery because of the large number of people involved in transferring the young wife from her home to the private asylum and in the acceptance as a substitute of the half-witted woman who is nearly at the point of death. There could be no intelligent and honest acceptance of the sickly idiot in the place of the bright and charming girl she resembled, but as a matter of fact, the use of private asylums in England for the purpose of incarcerating people who are in the way was so common at that time that the great novels of Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade on that subject stirred up a political and moral revolution. Laura manages to escape from the private asylum after her substitute has died and been buried and she visits the graveyard where a stone has been raised sacred to her memory. Walter Hartwright meets her there. Believing her to be dead he visits her tomb as a matter of sentiment and finds a woman in black who is none other than the one supposed to be lying beneath the sod. The story now turns to the re-establishment of Laura's identity and this is brought about by the intuitive steps taken by Hartwright to follow up the associations of Sir Percival Glyde. He finds him in company with Count Fosco, then shadows the latter persistently, but without result, until he describes the arch villain to his particular friend and associate, little Professor Pesca. Pesca has not forgotten the treachery of Count Fosco and might be excused for writing the latter's death warrant on the spot. Instead, he gives Walter a communication to deliver which warns Fosco that he will meet his death by secret violence unless he re-establishes the right of the living Laura to her inheritance and to her place in society. Armed with this letter Walter extorts a written confession from the arch conspirator, the consideration being that Count Fosco shall be permitted two days' time to escape vengeance at the hands of the Brotherhood. The interesting and impressive Count Fosco, one of the boldest villains ever delineated in the social drama, removes the hirsute ornaments on his face and otherwise disguises himself to escape what should be coming to him. We feel that he is well out of the way, but what about the drunken decadent of attractive title, Sir Percival Glyde, who has slipped into matrimony and a tremendous inheritance with a conscienceless lack of scruples peculiar to his kind? A visitation of God causes the death of Sir' Percival Glyde in a highly dramatic fire scene. He is partially destroyed when rescued by Walter Hartwright and carried into the open to perish miserably. His dying confession completes the chain of evidence necessary to prove his own infamy and the true identity of the young wife he had placed in a private madhouse. The play ends with the final terror of Count Fosco. He has been detected by members of the Brotherhood in spite of his disguise and is shadowed from point to point in some very effective scenes until we see him in the last one lying dead at the heads of those he betrayed, alone in a humiliating end of a long life of degraded ability.
- The young diplomat Phelps is spending a few days at his fiancée's in the country, when he is suddenly called to London by his Minister to copy some very important documents. Phelps is accompanied to London by his future brother-in-law, Harrison, who must see a creditor and try to get an extension, but the creditor insists on being paid immediately. Harrison is embarrassed, he must get money. Phelps stepped out of his office only a moment and upon his return finds that the very important document is stolen. This so affects his mind that the Minister of War has him taken to his fiancée's home and lodged in her brother's room, where Sherlock Holmes comes to see him, called by Miss Harrison. During the night Phelps believes he has a nightmare. He has seen a ghost in his room. Everybody believes that he has hallucinations. Sherlock thinks the matter over and decides to take Phelps with him to London. Sherlock returns the following night and sees a shadow enter the room, open a little trap in the floor out of which he pulls something. As he passes the window, Sherlock springs at him and after a struggle, seizes a paper which proves to be the stolen document. He also secures the ring of the man who was playing the ghost. The following day there is a dinner at Sherlock Holmes', the document is brought in on a large dish. Holmes comes to Harrison, who alone does not congratulate him and asks to shake hands. The ring is missing. Sherlock gives it back to him and for the happiness of Phelps and Miss Harrison, he will keep silent on the brother's crime.