In His Own Trap - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

Rodney Stone, a financier, calls upon Mrs. Helen Moore, a worldly-wise widow, intent upon proposing. He is refused, however, and just as he is leaving Mayne King, a rising young lawyer, arrives at the house. He is greeted affectionately, ...See moreRodney Stone, a financier, calls upon Mrs. Helen Moore, a worldly-wise widow, intent upon proposing. He is refused, however, and just as he is leaving Mayne King, a rising young lawyer, arrives at the house. He is greeted affectionately, an incident which only goes to make Stone more persistent in his desire to get the widow. In due time Helen and Mayne are married. There is now a lapse of one year. Helen's extravagance has told heavily on the young husband, but such is his love that he makes little remonstrance. Stone, however, is carefully watching all, and surmises that it will eventually prove to his advantage. At last, knowing that Mayne needs money desperately, Stone sets a trap. He calls old Hopkins, an experienced clerk, into his office and gives him a box in which there are $20,000 in cash and securities. He tells Hopkins to take the money and bonds to Mayne's office for investment, under the pretext that he (Hopkins) is going abroad for two years and that he wants to secure investments in first mortgages. Stone takes the numbers of the securities. Mayne walks into the trap just as Stone figured he would. Driven desperate by the bills that confront him, Mayne uses the money and hypothecates the stocks. When Stone has been informed by the detectives that the stocks have been hypothecated, he waits a week until he is sure the money is all gone and then he has Hopkins write a letter, saying he has changed his plans about going abroad and therefore prefers to make his own investments and that he will call for the securities and cash in two days' time. Mayne's wife, who had had Stone as her constant companion in all her pleasures and extravagances, comes in and sees the letter drop from Mayne's fingers. She reads the letter and asks her husband for an explanation. He tells her it is but too true, and adds: "I am a thief, you know the reason why, and I hope you are satisfied." That night Helen prevents her husband from committing suicide. Later she decides to appeal to Stone, and goes to his office. She meets Hopkins, who has known her since childhood. Stone arrives and Helen tells him that she needs money. He agrees to help her, but there is a condition. He looks her straight in the eyes and says that if she will come to his house at 11 o'clock alone, that night, he will give her the money, and old Hopkins, listening at the door, hears this. Helen draws away from Stone instinctively, but finally consents to his condition. All day Hopkins hunts for Mayne to tell him of his wife's peril, but Mayne is out trying to raise money. Meanwhile, Helen waits in her room throughout the evening. By 10 o'clock Mayne has raised the money from various sources and comes into the library a few moments after Helen has slipped out to keep her appointment with Stone. In a few words Hopkins, who has been waiting for Mayne, tells him the whole story and gives him a receipt for the money which Stone had given to him, trusting to his endorsement of his contemptible scheme. The receipt from Hopkins clears the horizon so far as Mayne is concerned. Mayne takes the receipt and a revolver and starts for Stone's house. Mayne climbs a balcony of Stone's house, knowing he will never be admitted. He breaks into the room, but doesn't know that his wife is there. Stone switches off the light and pushes Helen through a door. As Mayne comes through the window Stone fires. Then follows a succession of flashes in the dark room until at last Mayne switches on the light and sees Stone holding a broken left arm, his pistol lying on the floor. Through all this Helen listens. Mayne now throws the receipt on the table with the money due Stone and demands his wife. Although he chokes Stone with furious vigor. Stone maintains that his wife has never been near him. A search by Mayne, who is master of the situation, seems to corroborate his statement, for Helen, on hearing that an adjustment of the money difficulty had been made, had slipped out of the house. When Mayne gets home he finds Helen and old Hopkins in the library confronting each other. After he has looked into his wife's eyes a long time he is evidently satisfied of her innocence and as he holds her close in his arms, after Hopkins has retired, he sees for the first time a heap of jewels which she has left for him on the table. He offers them to her, but she thrusts them away as though they were hateful, and when the significance of this act dawns, he folds her closer than ever in his arms. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less