The Trunk Mystery

• 1916
• Suspense, Other

Cleaning out the attic of her boarding house Mrs. Montt comes upon an old trunk which discloses a skull to her startled gaze. Grant arrives on the scene for the investigation with Chief of Detectives Cadogan. They learn that Mrs. Montt purchased the house five years previous from Henri Theophile. The trunk was in the attic at that time but she had never examined it until this day. Investigating after Galloway's departure. Grant finds in the lining of the trunk a girl's photograph inscribed on the back: "To my dear Babette. Alphonse Darnac." Investigation in the filing room of the newspaper later brings to light a clipping telling of the disappearance of a boarder from the boarding house many years before and a hint that he had eloped with the daughter of the proprietor. Grant evolves a daring scheme to uncover the five-year-old mystery. He inserts a personal reading, "Babette, Your sweetheart, whom you thought dead, has returned. Meet him at the Abbey Inn Wednesday noon. Alphonse Darnac." Babette, now a happy wife and mother, and Henri Theophile, a derelict, see the personal. Their mystification impels both to journey to the Abbey Inn, where Grant and Galloway are in waiting. The meeting brings on stirring complications before the mystery is solved, while Grant is called upon to show daredevil courage in bringing Henri to justice.