The Moving Picture Weekly (1920-1921)

20 THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY Tke Story of ''Tke Diamond Q OPENING CHAPTERS OF SUPER-SERIAL (Not For Publication) "The Vow Of Vengeance" Episode One J)ORIS HARVEY, about to complete her course at a fashionable girl's finishing school on the Hudson, prepares to slip home and surprise her father. But John Harvey, diamond importer and philanthropist, of Maiden Lane, New York, is suddenly plunged into bankruptcy by the Diamond Trust, headed by Julius Zeidt, who is known as the world's diamond king, in order to force from Harvey control of certain new Brazilian mines. Hai-vey's great ambition, has been to establish a great free hospital clinic and school where crippled children, helpless mothers, life's misfits among the poor, can be righted and given a fair chance for progress. The blighting of his life's work is more than he can stand. Unable to face the daughter he idolizes in failure and disgrace, Harvey determines to end his life. Mason, his store manager, discovers his intent and tries to foil him, but Harvey slips away to his Long Island home, in the grip of suicidal insanity. DAUGHTER IS TOLD Doris, arriving at the store from school, learns from Mason what has happened. Like a bolt from a clear sky tragedy enters her life. She sets out in her car to overtake her father, instructing Mason to try and get him on the wire the minute he reaches home and hold him on some pretext till she arrives. The thrilling race with death is begun. Doris draws close upon her father's speeding car, driven by Tim, the family chauffeur, but each time is delayed in her wild dash — once when she wrecks her own car and risks her life to save a child in the road. At the time of the accident, her sacrifice is witnessed by another motorist, Bruce Weston, a young millionaire, who is owner of the Stockley Co., one of the firms of the Diamond Trust. But Bruce has had no hand in the ruin of Harvey. Neither Bruce nor Doris know each other when he finds her stunned in the wrecked car and offers his own car and his services in answer to her hysterical plea. The mad race is renewed, Bruce at the wheel, Doris praying that she will be in time. IN /V SCFNE FnoM "THF 0/4MON0 Q\JttK Publicity Cut No. 2 Harvey reaches his home just as Mason calls on the phone and delays him by a series of pretexts. Below in the basement of the home Prof. Martin Harvey, Doris grandfather, long considered half-demented because of his devotion to some mysterious chemical experiment, labors at his task. At last John Harvey, realizing that he is being tricked by Mason, tosses aside the phone, takes forth his revolver and raises it to his head. Bruce and Doris speed up the driveway outside, leap out of the car and dash up the front steps of the house in time to hear a shot ring out. They halt in their tracks. Old Martin Harvey stops at his task. The servants look aghast toward the drawing room. Doris, horror stricken, appears about to collapse. TOO LATE Recovering herself, Doris rushes into the drawing room only to find her father's crumpled body on the floor, dead. Bruce, still not'knowing Doris or whose house he is in, tries to comfort her when old Martin Harv^ey enters, looks for one grief-stricken moment at his son's body, then stands ueen erect, anew, grim light in his eyes. He asks Bruce to leave them. He goes away without learning who Doris is. Martin then leads Doris into the basement. There he tells her how the Diamond Trust had driven her father to his death and also explains the nature of his mysterious experiment. Together they swear to avenge John Harvey's death and carry out his great plan — and in the mysterious experiment they hope to find the weapon to achieve this. Doris looks at a newspaper cut of Zeidt and fastens his face in her mind. In the office of the Diamond Trust, Zeidt, its chief, tells his associates that though they have forced Harvey out of business he still holds documents that will incriminate them. These must be obtained at all costs or they face prison. Two days later Doris' grandfather hands her these documents to take to Henry Sylvester, close friend of her late father, for safe keeping. At the same time, Bruce, from a newspaper article, learns for the first time who Doris is and the circumstances surrounding her father's suicide. Sensing his position as a member of the trust, even though he is innocent, he sets out for the Hars-ey home in his car to clear himself in Doris' eyes. Thus, as Bruce nears the house, he sees Doris leave, followed by mysterious men, who are in reality crooks hired by Zeidt to obtain the documents. The crooks, spying at the house, had discovered Doris' intention and destination. Bruce follows them. TRAPPED When Doris discovers she is being pursued, she flees into an office building in the downtown section. The crooks are close on her heels. She runs down a blind corridor on one of the upper floors, enters a "to let" office and locks the door. Bnice overtakes the crooks at the door. They fall upon him and knock him out, than break in the door to seize Doris. But Doris dashes into a further room, locking the door. The crooks start to batter it down. Painters have been at work in the room. Doris looks out the window. Opposite her is another tall building. The gix)und lies eleven stories below. Seizing a painter's plank from the floor, she shoves it across the areaway from window to window, then starts across it. The crooks smash through the door and rush to the window. In her excitement Doris loses her balance and falls on the plank. The weight of her body breaks it. She plunges dc^vn apparently to her doom.