- A scientist who is married to an amoral woman lives next door to a happily married couple. At first envying their happiness, the scientist eventually falls in love with his neighbor's wife. When her husband goes on a business trip to Africa, the scientist also goes abroad to avoid temptation but finds himself sailing from Cairo aboard the same ship as his neighbor's wife, who is traveling to join her husband. The ship is wrecked when it collides with another vessel, and the two are marooned together at the edge of the jungle, with the woman suffering from amnesia and mistaking the scientist for her husband. About to kill himself to save the honor of his neighbors' marriage, the scientist is saved by the return of the woman's memory and by the subsequent arrival of her husband. Electing to remain in the jungle, the lonely scientist toasts the couple's happiness from afar.—Pamela Short
- As I sit here alone reading in the pages of my diary I think of what might have been. I do not regret my love nor do I regret my final determination in connection with that love. Circumstances conspired toward my love for the most perfect woman, in mine own eyes. My home life was unhappy; their home was ideal. My wife was a vixen; his wife was all that is good. She came to me at nightfall as innocent and as trusting as a child. Well, again I shall thumb the pages of my diary and recall to mind all the entanglements of those fateful threads which, for a time, bound her life with mine own. Back in the old days when my own wife consorted with others and made my home a hell on earth I was lonely and sought solace in the company of my Neighbor and his Wife. She discovered the secret of my unhappiness and as time went on I knew that I loved her madly. My Neighbor was called to Africa on a business trip, and when I accompanied my Neighbor's Wife to the steamer dock to bid him Godspeed I went with a troubled and insincere mind, for I now realized that I would have my Neighbor's Wife to myself. My Wife annoyed me continually. Her companions, both men and women, frequented my house, and with wine and cards passed the time in riotous living, turning my home into an abode of evil. Came a day when Fate gave my Neighbor's Wife into my arms. She was thrown from her horse in a runaway accident. One night I chanced to read in the Book of Books. The pages fell open at the chapter of Exodus XX: 17. My eyes fell on this admonition in the Ten Commandments: "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife." Realizing the sin of my insane love, I determined to leave the country and my Neighbor's Wife. And one day I sailed away. After many wanderings I found myself in Cairo, Egypt, and I decided to go to Africa. Then once again grim Fate gripped my hand, for again I met my Neighbor's Wife face to face. She explained the miracle of her presence. Her husband had instructed her to take the first ship and meet him in Africa, and so we sailed together from Suez. In the meantime, my Neighbor in a village on the African Coast was eagerly awaiting his wife's arrival, and during barter and sale with the natives he had incurred the bitter enmity of an African chieftain. Then the vessel upon which we were passengers was wrecked. The gigantic craft had collided with a derelict and the water poured into the ship from a great hole stove in its side. As the great ship shivered and groaned like something alive I thought of my Neighbor's Wife. I rushed to her stateroom and there found her helpless. I took her into my arms and with her leaped into the sea. Later we were washed ashore on the African coast. When she awoke her mind was disarranged from the shock and she thought I was her husband. We made our home in the jungle and that night she came to me as she had always come to her husband, and I knew that I, too, was going mad. I prayed to God to strengthen me in my hour of dire temptation. I left my Neighbor's Wife alone in the rude shelter. When I awoke I found her in my arms. Meanwhile my Neighbor received notification that the ship had been wrecked and to search for his wife along the African coast. As the days passed and my temptation became stronger, I determined to kill myself and save the honor of my Neighbor and his Wife. Just as I was about to take my life, I saw my loved one struggling with an immense leopard. I drove off the leopard just in time to save her life, and then for the last time Fate took a hand in the game. This time not for me, but against me. The shock of the leopard's attack, I found, had restored the reason of my Neighbor's Wife. My Neighbor had also become a wanderer. Driven from his home by African tribesmen, his companions slaughtered, he had struggled along for many miles, finally falling in an unconscious condition. We found his almost lifeless body, and my Neighbor's Wife's endearments snatched back the soul of her husband. When the ship came my Neighbor and his Wife left the African coast for home and happiness. I, too, was to return to civilization with them. However, I stood and pondered. Again in flaming letters there leaped into my mind the Biblical admonition: "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife." I left a message in the sand for my Neighbor, and from a secret spot I watched the boat leave the African shore, carrying out of my life all that was near and dear to me. And tonight, a wanderer on the face of the earth, I lay aside my diary and drink a toast to the happiness of my Neighbor and his Wife.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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