Summary
A poison-breathing portmanteau, wound like a clockwork asp, becomes the ticking heart of this 1916 bulletin of Gotham malice. Beatrice Fairfax, advice-columnist-cum-crime-oracle, is summoned by heiress Alice Masters, whose engagement to David Holmes is being throttled by guardian Harvey, a Wall Street hyena in white spats. While Beatrice keeps night-watch over the jittery debutante, newsman Jimmy Barton tails the sulphuric odor that trails Harvey’s ebony valise; the bag once lolled beside trustee Wells, now corpse-chalked in his private office. Jimmy filches a tiny key, slips into the mansion through a balcony’s yawning sash, and finds the bag squatting amid taxidermic grotesques—stuffed vulture heads, crocodile gloves—like a mausoleum for the nouveau riche id. A devil costume, a staged ophidian ambush, and a mock countdown force Harvey to confess that he vaporized Wells with a timed cyanide bellows to mask the embezzlement of Alice’s patrimony. The hour never strikes; Jimmy’s watch is a bluff, yet the moral reckoning tolls louder than any bell.
Synopsis
Beatrice Fairfax receives a letter from Alice Masters, an heiress and orphan, saying that she has become engaged to the man of her choice, David Holmes, but that her guardian, Mr. Harvey, objects and has forbidden her sweetheart to call upon her. She says that her other guardian, Mr. Wells, sympathizes with her and has promised to demand an accounting from Harvey. Alice also says that her mother died insane and recently she has begun to have delusions of the strangest kind, which greatly disturb and frighten her. While Beatrice is thinking of Alice and her trouble, Jimmy Barton is given an assignment to investigate the death of a Wall Street broker named Wells. On his way out, Jimmy stops to tell Beatrice of his assignment. She is struck by the sameness of names and hands Jimmy Alice's letter. He advises Beatrice to call upon Alice, promising to join her there. At Wells' office, he finds a policeman questioning the chief clerk, who declares that Wells saw no one that morning except Mr. Harvey, his co-trustee. Harvey carried a black bag. He remained only a few minutes, leaving the bag in the private office. An hour later Harvey's confidential servant called for the bag, and the broker was found dying, the bag on the floor nearby. There was a queer odor and the servant quickly opened the window and went away with the bag. Jimmy finds a small key on the floor, but nothing else. In the meantime, Beatrice arrives at the Harvey mansion. Harvey informs her that Alice is insane, but Beatrice is convinced otherwise and promises to spend the night with the girl. Jimmy hurries to the Harvey residence, but is refused admission. He goes on a tour of inspection around the house and discovers an open window on a low balcony. He enters and finds himself in a large bedroom. On the table he sees a black bag and concludes that it is the one Harvey carried into Wells' office. A noise at the door compels him to hide to prevent discovery by Harvey's servant, who comes in and puts the bag in a closet, filled with all kinds of strange and fantastic costumes, parts of stuffed animals and reptiles. The servant takes a huge stuffed hand from the closet, locks the door, puts the key in his pocket and goes away. Jimmy tries to pick the lock of the closet door but is interrupted and hides under the bed as Harvey enters with the closet door key which he places on the table. Harvey becomes angry over two telegrams which he reads and throws them on the floor within reach of Jimmy. Jimmy finds the telegrams are from brokers demanding more margins. Harvey falls asleep. Jimmy takes the black bag and hurries to the police station. He shows the key to the captain and inserting it in the lock of the bag turns it around and around as if winding up a toy. There is a buzzing inside the bag and all draw back in alarm. Jimmy, unconcerned, takes out his watch. At the end of an hour the bag suddenly opens and a puff of vapor is sent up. All are affected by the fumes. Jimmy demands Harvey's arrest. The police captain explains that there is no evidence that the bag is the same as the one taken into Wells' office. "We must have more evidence," he says, and Jimmy agrees to get it. He secures a "devil suit," and with a detective gets into Harvey's bedroom. Jimmy puts on the devil suit and with the black bag hides behind the curtains. Harvey comes in and from the closet takes a large stuffed snake which he fastens on his arm and goes out into the hall. Jimmy and the detective follow and see him hide behind curtains on one side of the stairs. As Alice comes up, Harvey thrusts the snake out from the curtains and Alice screams. Jimmy in the devil suit and waving the black bag runs in and drags Harvey through the curtains. He tries to escape but is caught by the detective. Harvey asks if he can be arrested for playing a practical joke on his ward. Jimmy, still arrayed in the devil suit, holds up the bag and leads the way to Harvey's bedroom, all following him. The detective handcuffs Harvey to the bedpost. Alice, Beatrice and David look on wonderingly. Jimmy looks at his watch and calls attention to the fact that it is exactly nine o'clock. He takes the key from his pocket and makes a pretense of winding the bag. Then he sets his watch against the bag with the dial facing Harvey, and directs everyone to leave the room. At five minutes to ten, Harvey screams for help and Jimmy and the others burst into the room. Harvey is shaking and afraid. He confesses that he has speculated with Alice's money, and that when Wells demanded an accounting he fixed up the bag with a secret but powerful poison gas and left it in the broker's office timed to open of itself in an hour and do its deadly work. Jimmy takes down the confession and makes Harvey sign it. Harvey points in horror to the watch. "Ten o'clock," he shrieks. But Jimmy answers with a laugh, "I didn't wind it."
