Society Detective

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Lord Gray buys his wife an expensive diamond. They are seen making the purchase by a notorious London crook, who shadows them to their home. That night the crook and his accomplices, a man and a woman, capture Lady Gray's maid. They compel the maid to write a note to her ladyship, stating she has been taken suddenly ill, and that the bearer, her sister, will take her place. The woman crook takes the note to Lady Gray's residence, and is admitted into the household. She discovers Lady Gray locking the diamond in a small safe, after which she hides the key under a vase. During Lady Gray's absence the woman crook steals the jewel and conceals it by pinning it to her underskirt. A friend of the Grays calls at the house, and Lady Gray goes to show her the present. The loss of the valuable stone is discovered, and her husband is informed of the robbery. Lord Gray at once calls Detective Finn, of Scotland Yard, and places the case in his hands. The "maid" overhears Lord Gray's conversation, and learns the celebrated detective is expected within an hour. Calling her pals on the 'phone she tells them she has the diamond, but that the robbery has been discovered and Detective Finn put on the case. The gentleman crook calls at Lord Gray's house. The card he presents bears the inscription, "Detective Arthur Finn." He hears the story of the robbery. After numerous questions he asks if they have a maid, and the question being answered in the affirmative, he demands to see her. She is summoned. By a secret code she tells her confederate where the stolen jewel is concealed. Informing his lordship that the maid is one of London's most noted crooks, he suddenly grabs her and wrests the diamond from her underskirt. He tells Lord and Lady Gray to leave the case entirely in his hands. With the maid supposedly under arrest, he leaves the house, taking the diamond with him and telling Lord Gray if he calls at headquarters in the morning it will be returned to him. Detective Finn leaves his office and makes his way to Lord Gray's. He enters the gate just as the two crooks come out. Entering the walk that leads to the house he finds a handkerchief, which has the odor of a peculiar perfume. When he presents his card to Lord Gray, he is told that Detective Finn had already been there. Convincing Lord Gray that he has been duped, he hears the whole story, and then starts in pursuit of the thieves, his only clue a perfumed handkerchief. About to board a bus he is again struck with the peculiar odor of the perfume on the handkerchief as a man and woman alight. He decides to "shadow" the pair. They discover they are being followed. The crook hurriedly puts his confederate into a taxi, telling her he will follow later and meet at their house. The crook then boards a bus, followed by the detective. In a hand-to-hand conflict on top of the bus, the crook knocks the detective down, and jumps onto a bus going in the opposite direction. The detective staggers up and succeeds in jumping onto the same bus, where another scuffle takes place, the detective again getting the worst of it, and the crook escapes by jumping onto a passing taxi. The detective hails a taxi and starts in pursuit. The detective overtakes the taxi, and makes a daring jump into it as it passes. Again the crook gets the better of a fight, and makes his escape by jumping onto a crane slowly rising in the air in front of a building which is being renovated, followed by the detective, who succeeds in grabbing a dangling chain. Finally they reach the scaffold, where a deadly struggle takes place; but again either by luck or superior strength, the crook makes his getaway over the roofs of the buildings, finally entering his own house, followed, however, by the detective. Here the detective is trapped, and bound securely to a sofa. A bomb is placed near the sofa, and a fuse, timed to burn for thirty minutes, is lighted, and attached to the bomb. Coolly informing the detective that half an hour later when the bomb explodes he will be on his way to Paris, the crook leaves, thoroughly convinced Detective Finn will bother him no more. But the crook reckons without the detective's dog. The dog becomes restless at his master's long absence. Escaping from the house, the canine trails his master to the house in which he is a captive, but finds difficulty in entering the room, as the window is only slightly open. After much maneuvering with the window the dog succeeds in forcing it upward, and gains entrance. Obeying its master it first upsets the bomb, putting out the fuse, and then gnaws at the cords which bind Finn, until he is able to get free. Rushing out of the house, Detective Finn hails a taxi, and makes all possible speed to the Charing Cross Railway Station. He arrives just as the train pulls out, just too late to board the train that is taking the notorious crook to Dover. Hiring a high speed automobile, he tells the chauffeur he must beat the express to Dover. At breakneck speed, the automobile goes until it reaches the station at Dover, just ahead of the express. Making his way to the docks, the detective makes himself known to the officials, and assumes the disguise of a steward. At the gangplank he stands, waiting for the crook to come. Furtively glancing around him the crook approaches the gangplank, paying not the slightest attention to the disguised detective. As he approaches close to Finn a pair of handcuffs are snapped around his wrists, and he is marched off to jail to await his trial, not only for the robbery of the diamond, but on numerous other charges.