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Broadway Bill Synopsis

"Broadway Bill" Clayton, a New York playboy and heavy drinker, takes a job at the Maine lumber camp of John Underwood hoping to reform himself and regain the affections of Muriel Latham. Foreman Buck Hardigan, who has been stealing and selling Underwood's maple syrup, suspects that Bill has been sent as a spy and decides to get rid of him. Bill survives several plots on his life and finally defeats Buck in a fight and is elected foreman. His struggle with alcohol is nearly won, but when he reads a newspaper item erroneously stating that Muriel is engaged to another, he decides to drink again. Muriel visits the camp with Underwood, and everything is cleared up after Bill rescues her brother Jack in a snow storm.

The Come-Back Synopsis

Randall Ridgeway. a lumber king, learns that one of his contracting companies in northern Maine is carrying on crooked transactions. His son, Burt, overhears his father discussing the matter and asks if he might go and investigate. His father refuses, thinking his son too young and not strong enough physically to deal with the woodsmen. Mac Heberton, who controls the camp in Maine, hears of Ridgeway's suspicions. He compels his bookkeeper to arrange a double set of books, under penalty of exposing him for a murder he saw him commit. Burt Ridgeway falls in with a fast crowd and meets a professional dancer named Lotus de Valois. Under the spell of the girl, and the direction of her unscrupulous chaperon, Burt becomes involved financially. He goes to his father for more money. His father, fearful that his son is not improving his time, puts him to a test. He gives him $25,000 with the understanding that every time he adds another thousand to the amount he will present him with an additional $5,000. With more funds at his disposal Burt strikes a faster pace. Lotus sees a lavaliere, valued at $14,500, which she induces Burt to buy for her. The elder Ridgeway becomes discouraged when he does not see any business activity on the part of his son. Hoping to interest and assist him he takes a three days' option on some real estate where there is a chance to make a big coup. The boy confesses that he cannot cover the option, as he has but $5,000 left in the bank. That night Burt returns home intoxicated. He has words with his father, who has lost faith in him for the first time. In a rage his father orders him from home, telling him he is not "worth his salt." Burt leaves and makes straight for the lumber camp in Maine, where he hopes to rejuvenate himself. Arrived there, after many severe trials, he meets Patta Heberton, a pretty girl of the woods, and the ward of Mac Heberton. They become interested in each other, at their first meeting, and are engaged in pleasant conversation, when "Bully Bill," a camp foreman, observes them. "Bully Bill" is all his sobriquet implies, and he is madly in love with Patta. He challenges the stranger's right to talk to the girl, which results in a fight. The dissipated young man from the city is like a child in the woodman's hands, and h« is knocked cold with two sharp blows. Burt takes his beating with chagrin, but decides to remain, and obtains a position as checker. He plans to regain his strength and prowess if proper training will do it. He leaves off cigarettes and whiskey, and exercises in the open at every opportunity. On a holiday, soon afterward, when the woodsmen are gathered for a day of sports, Burt has another encounter with "Bully Bill." He dispatches the bully with ease. For this Burt wins the admiration of the crowd and the lasting friendship of "Bully Bill." The following day Burt is passing the office of Mac Heberton, when a draft of wind carries a check out of the window, and at his feet picking it up he finds it is from a rival concern. Burt hurries inside, and backing the spineless bookkeeper up in a corner, he threatens to kill him if he does not tell him the whole truth. For the first time in the camp he discloses his identity. The bookkeeper weakens and confesses that Heberton has been cheating his father out of thousands of dollars. Heberton comes in the door unseen, as the bookkeeper makes this statement, and with uplifted axe is about to strike Burt, when "Bully Bill" rushes in and stays his hand. In a subsequent investigation Burt finds a will left by Patta's grandfather, in which she is named sole beneficiary of his estate on her eighteenth birthday. Heberton has kept her in ignorance of this situation, and has taken over the estate himself. Burt's father is overjoyed beyond expression when his son comes back, a new man, with the story of the arrest of Heberton and a vivid description of the girl in the woods, who is to join him soon in New York, as his life's partner.