Reel Life (Sep 1914 - Mar 1915)

REEL LIFE Seventeen How a Slender Clue Saved a Girl From a Fate Worse Whan Death "The Lost House" A SLIGHT, g i r 1 i s h figure in black, 1 heavily veiled, and from the languor of her movements a p p a r ently frail and even ill, followed the tall man with the shock of grey hair into the hotel. He placed his name in the register as Ethan Dale, of Kentucky, and then he wrote for the girl directly under his own signature, "Dosia Dale". "Give my niece," he commanded the clerk, "a room connecting with mine." It was evident that she was completely under the domination of her relative, who was of none too benign aspect. As one who long had been accustomed to obeying, she glided, a pathetic little shadow, in his wake. Not once, as the strange pair passed through the hotel lobby, did the clerk hear her speak. One evening Miss Dale 4eft the hotel in the company of her uncle and a certain Dr. Pr other o — and did not return. A few days after that Wallace Ford, a young newspaper man, was visited at the Press Club by a shabby old man who was still industriously studying a scrap of paper. "Found this in 'Bedlam Road'," he said hesitatingly and then began to mumble CAST Ford, the reporter Wallace Reid A Mutual Masterpicture, Starring Lillian Oish, Produced by Majestic, From the Story by Richard Harding Davis Ford and Dosia Leaped something about "the cop" not taking his find seriously. The reporter took the note. "I am Dosia Dale of Louisville," he read. "I am locked in behind barred windows. I do not know the number of the house, but my room is just above where I drop this. I implore you, whoever you are, to save me." Ford thought a moment. "Bedlam Road" was so nicknamed because of several sanitariums for nervous patients situated upon it. "I guess the police are too used to this sort of thing in this neighborhood, to pay much attention," he mused. "Just the same, I've a hunch that this time there's something wrong." Hurrying to the nearest telegraph station, he sent off a wire to Louisville. "Who is Dosia Dale? Where is she? Reply to The Evening Messenger, Care of W. Ford, Elizabeth, N. J." The wire which, a few hours later, reached him at the office, said : "Dosia Dale, an, heiress of this city, travelling with her uncle. Young, soon to become of age. At Hotel Jordan, Elizabeth." Ford whistled. And then he started out in earnest to locate the house from which the note was dropped. The old man who had found the bit of paper was by no means certain from just which house it had been thrown. The young reporter went first to the Hotel Jordan. There he learned that the girl and her uncle had left suddenly several days before. There was no forwarding address. Ford lost no time in betaking himself to "Bedlam Road". A street piano was playing before the row of prison-like houses and it gave Ford an idea. He offered the astonished Italian a twodollar bill, if, for half an hour, the piano might be his. . Ford stood in the street and turned the crank, playing "Dixie" and "My Old Kentucky Home", over and over, until a glove dropped from a window in the third house from the corner. Then he went in search of his friend, Jim Cuthbert. By pretending to be a naval officer suffering from a bad -case of "nerves", Ford gained admittance to the house an hour later. He had arranged with Cuthbert to remain on watch. "If I am not out with the girl by midnight, have the police raid," he said, simply. The house turned out to be the private sanitarium of Dr. Prothero. The newcomer was not long in discovering Dosia' s room, and in noiselessly forcing an entrance. Scarcely had he succeeded in reassuring the frightened girl, when a footstep outside made them step back in alarm. "My uncle is coming!" she whispered — and the next moment he was barricading himself and his companion behind all the available furniture, piling it against the door. The infuriated Kentuckian and Dr. Prothero, charlatan and crook, hammered and kicked in vain against this wall of defense. Their efforts were interrupted, however, by the arrival of Cuthbert and the police in the street below. Ford and the girl found themselves between two volleys. The uncle, going mad with fear, set fire to the house — and Ford fled with Dosia over the roof. Together they leaped into the life-net, spread by the waiting firemen, while Dale and Prothero were killed by the police. When Dosia learned that her uncle long ago had spent her fortune, she told Ford that he had saved the life, not of an heiress, but a penniless, homeless girl. _ "Well — not homeless anyway," he replied, taking her in his arms. Waiting Life-net