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The Devil at His Elbow Synopsis

John Ashton, a young mechanical engineer, is completing the plans of a new submarine. The government is interested in his work, and he has promised to have it done by the tenth of the month, which gives him only six days in which to complete it. More and more he has been resorting to whiskey to keep his brain active. Robert Gray remonstrates with him, but to no avail. His fiancée, Grace Sealey, telephones him and urges him to attend a dinner party on the ninth. He accepts, though against his will. He falls asleep and dreams that he prepares to attend the dinner; he is still intoxicated when he arrives. Grace's father at once breaks off the engagement, and he leaves the house in disgrace. He goes home and finishes his plans on the morning of the tenth, and then, still wearing his evening clothes, wanders out into unknown streets. He goes into a saloon on the waterfront and drinks until he is insensible. There he is noticed by the captain and mate of a freighter, and shanghaied on board the vessel. When he comes to his senses he is far out at sea, and is told that the cruise will occupy six months, but that he may have all he wants to drink. At the end of the cruise Ashton and the captain, coming ashore, take a farewell drink together. Meg, a human derelict, attracts the captain's attention, and he attempts to force his attentions upon her. Ashton comes to her assistance, angering the captain, who gets two stevedores to attack him. Meg takes him to her own meager quarters and takes care of him. Gradually she induces him to stop drinking. Passing the building where he formerly had his office, he sees Franklin Darrow, a government engineer, and Gray, and hears them speak of Grace's wedding. She is to marry Wilfred Carleton, a broker, thinking Ashton dead. The news sends Ashton back to drinking heavily once more. But Meg learns of his real identity and helps him to win back his self-respect. They are married and Ashton's ambition returns. He resumes his work and seeks out his former friends. But Meg is unused to the new life. Her husband's work takes him more and more away from her, and she decides to take radical measures. Since he fell in love with her when under the influence of drink, she induces him to drink again, preferring his society in idleness and sordid surroundings to his neglect in luxury. The new plans for the government's submarine are made while he is intoxicated. They are wrong, and the crew of the first boat launched is drowned. Meg confesses what she has done, and takes the blame on herself. He flies at her throat, and waking up, knocks over the things on his desk. His original plans are as yet unfinished. He puts from him "the devil at his elbow," whiskey, and he and his fiancée have an early marriage, with the promise of a life full of achievement and ambition that is not clouded by an enemy which steals away the brains.

To the Death Synopsis

Bianca, a Corsican, supports her frivolous sister, Rosa, by making laces. The sculptor, Manatelli, visits her cottage to buy laces, and sees her modeling in clay. Impressed by her talent, he offers her free instruction if she wishes to come to Paris. Bianca accepts and promises to send for Rose as soon as possible. In Paris she meets Etienne Du Inette, head of the Internationale, a powerful secret service organization. He and Bianca are instantly attracted to each other. Jules Lavinne, also in the service of the Internationale, goes to Corsica on a secret mission. He sees and desires Rosa. One day a mysterious veiled woman slips a note under Etienne's door, warning him to go to Corsica and watch Lavinne, who is a traitor. He soon has occasion to protect Rosa from Lavinne. Lavinne learns the assumed name Etienne is using on the island and signs it to a note asking Rosa to meet him. In Paris, Bianca finishes and exhibits her first piece of work, and it is purchased by a wealthy patron. She sends for Rosa, but a letter from old Maria tells of the girl's disgrace and attempted suicide. Bianca rushes to her sister, who is dying. She finds the note which lured her sister to her destruction. It is signed, "Pierre Renard." Bianca vows to follow Pierre Renard "To the Death." She meets Jules Lavinne, and instinctively dislikes him, but when she learns that he belongs to the Internationale she forces herself to be gracious to him, hoping that he will aid her in finding "Pierre Renard." Lavinne, determined to win her, avoids meeting Etienne. Bianca asks Lavinne's aid, and he promises to find the man for her if she will marry him. Having vowed to avenge her sister at any cost, she promises. That night Lavinne telephones that he has a photograph of Pierre Renard. Bianca asks him to bring it to her at once. Before he comes he writes a note which he instructs his man to deliver to Etienne. It reads, "Bianca is in great danger. Go to her at once." Lavinne engages tickets on the midnight train, and tells his valet to take his portmanteau to a prominent hotel, where he arranges to have a priest ready to perform the ceremony. He shows Bianca the photograph. She is speechless with horror when she sees that it is a picture of Etienne. Lavinne instructs her to ask him whether he was not known in Corsica as "Pierre Renard." When he arrives she does so, and he admits it, also admitting that he knew Rosa there. She plunges a dagger in his breast, and he falls to the floor. Unwilling to keep her bargain with Lavinne, she attempts to take her own life. Lavinne prevents her, and forces her to accompany him to the hotel where the priest is in waiting. No sooner is the ceremony performed than Lavinne boasts of having won her by trickery, saying that it was he himself who lured Rosa to her death by the use of the name "Pierre Renard." Just then the valet knocks at the door, and Lavinne admits him. Behind him follow the woman of mystery and two gendarmes. The woman is Lavinne's wife, and he is arrested as a bigamist and a traitor. He returns to Bianca the dagger with which she struck down her lover. She rushes back to her own apartment, to kill herself beside his body, but she is amazed to find him gone. Her old nurse leads her into the room where he is lying asleep. The medallion of herself worn over his heart has saved his life.