Picture Stories Magazine (Sept 1914-Feb 1915)

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At the Foot of the Stairs. Adapted from the REX Film by Owen Garth. A husband discovers his false wife's love for another man but does not suspect her plan to elope. The new maid — a tool of thieves — is treated kindly by the husband and hesitates to assist in an expected burglary which occurs simultaneously with the wife's departure, but the maid's faithfulness to the husband asserts itself and she shoots the lover, at the same time driving the burglars from the house and eventually taking the place of the cast-off wife. The Husband The Wife... The Maid... The Friend Cast ROBERT LEONARD ... FLORA GARCIA ELLA HALL The Stool Pigeon ... ...ALAN FORREST The Detective The Crooks HARRY CARTER LLOYD INGRAHAM JIM MASON BRUCE MITCHELL pB LEONARD married for love, at least he thought so, but his wife, Lydia, might have been sentimental in the early wedded days ; though now, after a couple of years, the situation palled on her. Luxury had been her real object in marrying Leonard, the rich, very rich business man. She had thought wealth the all-to-be-desired in life. She had learnt the truth. Even every luxury she desired did not reconcile her to her rather over-bearing, masterful husband, whose daily life seemed to be a fight for gold, and more gold. The pair drifted slowly apart till he left her to her own devices and buried himself in his work. When things get to this pitch in married life it is dangerous — for the woman. The danger appeared in its usual form to Lydia. She was handsome, in a dark, somewhat bold style; ^he liked pleasure and revelled in the complimentary attentions of men. Thrown into a life of gaiety outside her husband's sphere, she met one man who, by his gallantry and attendance, became her knight-errant ; she came to dream of him as a brave knight who would rescue her from the gilded castle prison, and he was only too willing to play his part — it suited his temperament, for to Wilbert Romaine a woman in an ordinary situation had no attraction, while intrigue was as the breath of his nostrils. Kingsmount, where the Leonards lived, had grown to fame on account of the very rich people who took up their abode there ; it became also notorious for a gang of crooks who were attracted by the wealth of the place and fattened on the spoils of their clever schemes. Engineered by a brilliant scamp, whose dupes, drawn from all classes, walked in fear of him, these schemes were ingenious, and always original. Never was the same trick played twice, which accounted for the difficulty in tracking the gang down. The crooks had a great plot on now, no less a one than to rob wealthy Bob Leonard's safe — a full one, no doubt, as they reckoned. But to crack the crib" as ordinary burglars was foreign to their ways — they could aflFord to disdain such crude methods. First they must have a spy for information— a traitor in the house who would open the doors to them when they came, and make their task easy. And in that way little Ella Hall came to serve in the Leonard household. How she came to act for the gang is impossible to say : that she was in their clutches and forced to do their will was obvious. For weeks they had waited their opportunity, then it came : the Leonards' advertised for a maid, and Ella was forced to apply for and accept the situation. Poor little girl, frail as a field flower, and as pretty ; a sad face, wreathed in fluffy fair hair, she had seemed the one to play such a part — no one would have suspected her duplicity. So much the better for the "crooks." Bob Leonard had just come down from