A Mexican Mine Fraud; or, The Game That Failed

Summary

Starry, a velvet-gloved banker, peddles shimmering mirages of Mexican bullion to a ravenous London bourse, minting millionaires of the gullible while his ledger quietly hemorrhages air. Into this gilt-edged hallucination strides George Ferguson, ink-stained war correspondent, fresh from Balkan gun-smoke and already half-drunk on Margaret Starry’s marble-profile beauty—unaware that her father’s fortune is a paper tiger. The Daily Truth, smelling blood beneath the gilt, dispatches Ferguson southward; Starry dispatches his prospective son-in-law, James Park, a porcelain-dandy with a cobra’s smile, to turn the assignment into a funeral. What follows is a fever-dream of colonial noir: duel at dawn, train through arid sierras, and finally a circus-cage negotiation lit by a solitary candle whose dwindling wax measures the journalist’s lifespan. Ten lions pace like amber-eyed auditors; Park demands a puff-piece or pulls the chain. Smoke, fangs, and a reckless rescue by torchlight later, Ferguson staggers back to Fleet Street, files the exposé that topples an empire of vapor, and resigns—only to chase the vanished Starrys to Switzerland, discovering Margaret amid Alpine snows, pockets empty, conscience scrubbed clean, and heart still his. They marry on the condition that every fraudulent shilling be repaid; love bought at such cost, the film insists, is the only currency that never inflates.

Synopsis

Mr. Starry, a banker, has been successfully selling stock in a company to work a gold mine in Mexico. The editor of the "Daily Truth" has received information which warrants him to expose the scheme of Mr. Starry, who has become enormously wealthy by the sale of this fraudulent stock. George Ferguson, a war correspondent on the "Daily Truth," while returning 4from the Balkan service, forms the acquaintance of the banker's daughter, Margaret, and falls in love with her. On his arrival his editor informs him of this stock jobbing scheme and tells him that he must proceed with all haste to Mexico and make a thorough investigation. Banker Starry has been informed of the "Daily Truth's" activeness, and his prospective son-in-law, James Park, makes a very attractive proposition to Ferguson to induce him to give up his trip, which results in a duel. Park is slightly wounded and then and there decides to precede Ferguson to Mexico to prevent him at all hazards from sending anything but a good report of the mine proposition. He visits all the dives and makes the acquaintance of many bandits and lion tamers who will serve his purpose. On the arrival of Ferguson, Park arranges to have him directed to the lion tamer's camp where Ferguson is taken prisoner and placed in a cage divided in two parts, one part is occupied by ten lions. Park has provided a table, pen, ink and paper and has lighted a candle, informs his prisoner that he must make up his mind before the candle burns out to write up a glowing account of the mines to be sent to the "Daily Truth," or he will pull the chain that will lift the door allowing the lions in to devour him. Ferguson's guides have located him by this time and have determined that the only way to save him is to set fire to the building. This they do and amid the roar of the lions and the licking of the flames he makes a miraculous escape and arrives back in London to the office of the "Daily Truth," which denounces the fraudulent gold mine proposition in glowing headlines. Banker Starry and his beautiful daughter, Margaret, make a sudden departure for Switzerland. James Park lost his life amid the lions and fire. Ferguson resigns from the staff of the "Daily Truth" and leaves for Switzerland, where he finds the banker and his daughter, who has refunded every cent to the stockholders of the gold mine scheme through the "Daily Truth." The banker's daughter is now Mrs. Ferguson.