The Million Dollar Robbery

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Falsely accused of the theft of a million dollars in securities from the safe of his wealthy employer, an honest young private secretary finds himself powerless to prove his innocence because of the perjury of an unprincipled butler who has been bribed to testify against him. The daughter of his employer is the innocent cause of the activity of his powerful enemy, who is an influential banker and the rival of the secretary for the hand of the girl. One of the secretary's cufflinks found near the looted safe suggests to the banker the possibility of fixing the crime upon him. The butler accepts a large sum of money from the banker in return for bearing witness, but is suspected of dishonesty by the maid because of his sudden show of wealth. Detectives are put upon his track, but he learns of his danger and succeeds in effecting his escape, thus making it appear that he himself is guilty of the theft. As a hunted criminal with the police instructed to arrest him on sight he becomes a desperate character and selects the banker as a likely subject for a successful scheme to obtain money. By a clever ruse be obtains an audience with the banker, leaving him bound and gagged several thousand dollars poorer. But his bold move leads to his discovery by the police, who follow him successfully in spite of a spectacular flight in which Broadway, the Bowery, the Brooklyn Bridge and Flushing, Long Island play an important part. The opening of a large cantilever bridge at the psychological moment places the butler in the clutches of the law, but the banker is afraid to identify him as his assailant and there is no direct proof of his connection with the million dollar robbery. Experts find only the safe owner's fingerprints upon the combination of the safe, and a famous detective becomes interested in the peculiar case. He looks up the life history of the victim of the robbery and finds that the old capitalist suffers from a common but little understood affliction. By substituting a hypnotist for the old gentleman's barber he succeeds in obtaining a statement which proves that the capitalist removed the money box from the safe with his own hands and hid it in a fireplace while walking in his sleep. The butler is immediately accused of perjury, but fights desperately against arrest and when finally cornered leaps from the top of a high building to his death. The capitalist carefully follows the instructions given by himself while hypnotized and finding his lost wealth intact, begs the forgiveness of his falsely accused secretary and welcomes him as the husband of his daughter.