The Despoiler

• 1916
• Other, Drama

Ben Cameron, widowers, is rejected by Mary Rodgers, who marries Richard Warner. Cameron brings up his young son, Bruce, himself, and, prospering through his mine operations, soon finds his offspring a dissolute spendthrift. When he catches the boy trying to rob his safe he turns him out. Then Bruce seeks still worse companions and becomes known to the police as "The Shadow." Mary works behind a counter, as Richard makes little as a bookkeeper. "The Shadow," not knowing the sales woman as the girl his father desired to wed, thrusts a piece of lace into her cloak when nearly caught stealing it himself. Then he denounces her, and she, fearing such an accusation would cost her the position, pays for the silence. When she could stand it no longer, Cameron, the mine owner, and her former sweetheart, comes to town and taking advantage of an old promise that he would always be ready to help, she appeals to him. When "The Shadow" comes to collect again from Mary, he finds Cameron, his father. The son fearing his father would kill him rather than see him such a criminal, flourishes a pistol and is shot in a grapple. "You have killed 'The Shadow,' Mr. Cameron," the detectives congratulate him. In his anguish the millionaire collapses. Mary and Richard, unknowingly, are happy.