The Hieroglyphic

• 1912
• Other, Suspense

Peter Barton leaves his wealth to his niece Mary, disinheriting his dissipated son Edgar, who steals the will. Jack Smart, a rascal and an associate of Edgar's, keeps close watch upon him. At revolver-point Jack compels Edgar to surrender the will to him. Obliged to go to work, Edgar's cousin Mary takes a position as a reporter and meets Tom Swayne, who falls in love with her. Tom sees Jack Smart in a restaurant, and after the villain leaves, Tom picks up a menu card upon which Smart has written some hieroglyphics. Mary shows him an envelope which she picked up in her uncle's room, where Smart took the will from Edgar, after he had stolen it. Tom compares it and the hieroglyphics on it with those on the menu card: they are the same. Smart agrees to return the will to Barton for $10,000. Mary and Tom enter the restaurant where Tom found the menu card, and see Smart enter and leave. They ask the waiter who wrote the hieroglyphics on the card. He tells them the man who has just left. Tom and Mary trail him. Smart returns to the restaurant and meets Edgar Barton. They enter a private dining room. Barton passes over the money to Smart. Edgar is applying a match to the will when a policeman, with Tom and Mary, enters. The policeman rescues the will and gives it to Mary.