His Turning Point

Summary

A chandeliered salon, thick with cigar smoke and the brittle laughter of the moneyed, becomes the crucible for a casual vow that will later ricochet through bloodlines: Mr. Carey—rail-road baron, collector of porcelain reputations—swears he would annul any marriage tainted by the merest whiff of larceny in the bride’s family tree. The next night, while Carey is off counting rolling-stock dividends, memory slips its leash. His wife, once the pampered daughter of a merchant prince, reclines in a cone of lamplight and rewinds the reel of her undoing: a father’s ledger inked crimson, a brother’s descent from velveteen heir to window-smashing prowler, her own frantic leap from gentility into the arms of a suitor who knows nothing of the stain she carries. Reverie snaps when a masked silhouette jimmies the French doors, hunting documents that could sink Carey’s empire. The intruder is the brother she has buried beneath years of embroidery and small-talk; the pistol he levels wavers when a sleepy child toddles in, thumb in mouth, trust incandescent. In the breath it takes for a toddler to discover the trigger, destinies pivot: the thief pivots into protector, the mother into conspirator, the husband into unwitting marksman who fires through glass and hears his own verdict shatter. What follows is a triptych of betrayals and restitutions: stolen contracts smuggled back by the very outcast who took them; a kidnapping plotted in a riverside gin-mill and foiled by a horse galloping hell-for-leather toward a cliff; a red motorcycle flung beneath a fleeing buggy, a bruised uncle cradling his niece at dawn, and a steamer ticket to Valparaíso that buys silence with salt wind. At the gangplank the little girl waves a handkerchief as if scattering ash, unaware she is witnessing the exile of the only secret her family will never confess.

Synopsis

During a reception given by Mr. and Mrs. Carey, the topic of "black sheep" in families comes up, and Mr. Carey makes the remark that if ever he discovered that there was a thief in the family of the woman he married he would divorce her. The next evening Carey is called away, and Mrs. Carey and her little child are left alone. Mrs. Carey puts her child to bed and goes to her sitting room to read. She thinks of her husband said the day before and a vision of past days comes to her....She is a young woman in good circumstances; her father is a prosperous businessman. One day, though, he returns home to inform his daughter and son that his fortune has been swept away. The loss of his fortune and his position cause him much worry, and he dies from the effects. The brother, accustomed to all the good things of life, finds it hard to do anything. He sells his belongings and gets what money he can. Lower and lower he falls, until one day he is caught by the police in the act of leaving a house by a window and is sent to prison as a burglar. The sister, not wishing to live alone, writes to one of her friends, telling her that she is in poor circumstances, and asks if she might visit her. At once the invitation is extended, and we find her at the handsome home of her friend. Here, as time goes, she meets a wealthy man who learns her story, excepting that part relating to her brother, and he proposes marriage. As the reverie breaks a burglar is seen entering the home of Carey. He glides in quietly, searching for some important papers. He knocks over a stool, which awakens the little child. She at once leaves her bed and goes into the drawing room. The burglar, masked, not knowing who is entering, points his revolver toward the door. The child enters, and the burglar tries to persuade her to go back to her room. Mrs. Carey, hearing the noise, comes hastily to the drawing room. Stealthily she had secured her own revolver, and, seeing the situation, gets the "drop" on the masked man and calls to him to throw up his hands. He obeys, but, seeing the woman, pulls off his mask and shows he is her brother. She begs him to leave at once, telling him what her husband had said. While they are talking, the child, seeing the revolver which her mother had laid on the table, picks it up and begins to examine it. She puts the muzzle into her mouth and is fingering with the trigger. The mother and the man see this at the same moment, and the mother starts quickly for the child in an effort to grab the gun. The man, quicker witted, stops her and talks quietly with the child until he gets the gun. At this moment Carey is heard coming in. Mrs. Carey pleads with her brother to leave quickly and she hastens out of the room with the child. Carey enters, sees the lights turned on, turns, and sees the fleeing form of the man. He reaches for his revolver and shoots through the window. The shot attracts a policeman who comes to the scene as Carey reaches the garden and both find the wounded man. He is brought into the house and Mrs. Carey is about to tell who he is, but the brother signals to her and the story is left untold. Mrs. Carey finds herself in straits to explain the situation, but manages it successfully. The gang in its den reading the papers of the next morning and seeing that their confederate had failed in his attempt determine to get the papers themselves. They get into the house, capture Carey, bind him, and get the papers from his open safe. After a while the brother arrives from a short sentence, and is told of their success in getting the papers. He knows now that the papers belong to his brother-in-law, and is anxious to get them. He watches where they are kept and, after drinking and carousing in the den he manages to get the papers, and quietly returns them to Carey's desk one night. The next morning the gang learn that the papers have disappeared and plan revenge. They arrange to kidnap the child and thus cause Carey to give them ransom. The brother hears these plans and joins in them. A few days later the little child is seized by one of the gang. The brother sees the scheme. Just as the child is being thrown into a waiting buggy, he draws his gun, shoots, and wounds the kidnapper. The horse, frightened, leaps away with the child in the vehicle. The young fellow runs behind in an effort to race the horse down. Coming to a motorcycle, he grabs it, and starts a race. Passing the running horse, he dismounts and heads off the runaway. He is slightly hurt, but manages to stop the runaway and starts back with the child. The reconciliation comes when Mrs. Carey tells who the young fellow is, taking the chance which she had always feared. Carey decides to send the young man to one of his plants in South America, extracting first, however, a promise that he will never return to this country and that no hint will ever be given of his past life. The picture ends with the little girl waving goodbye to her young uncle as he leaves on his long voyage.