Summary
In a Manhattan mansion dripping with old-money mahogany and the hush of tapestries that have absorbed decades of whispers, Travers Gladwyn—playboy, esthete, connoisseur of his own boredom—learns that the phantom cat-burglar Alf Wilson has sketched his loot-list in crimson pencil across the marble of society pages. Instead of hiring a phalanx of Pinkertons, the millionaire purchases a single patrolman—Officer 666, badge gleaming like a Judas coin—for the price of a single folded five-century note. Cloaked in midnight-blue wool and the borrowed authority of the city, Travers becomes his own sentinel, a wolf in policeman’s clothing prowling the corridors of privilege. Wilson arrives wearing not a domino mask but the more devastating disguise of identity itself: he introduces himself as Travers Gladwyn, calmly directing footmen to crate the ancestral oils “for safekeeping.” The imposture is so audacious it almost succeeds—until Helen Barton, luminous and credulous, glides through the door expecting to elope with the man she believes is her host. The real Travers, heart stung by an arrow he never saw coming, tears off his uniform’s façade and summons the bemused Phelan. A duel of wits ensues over counterfeit currency, mirrored signatures, and the unstable physics of selfhood. When detectives finally crash the soirée hunting Wilson for a prior kidnapping, the mansion’s hall of mirrors collapses into clarity: the true collector is not the thief who covets canvases but the lover who covets the woman now drifting toward him like dawn light over gilt frames.
Synopsis
Learning the notorious art thief Alf Wilson plans to steal his valuable paintings, idle millionaire Travers Gladwyn decides to amuse himself by guarding his own home. After bribing Policeman Phelan, Officer 666, with a $500 bill, Travers dons the officer's uniform and identity. When Wilson appears at his mansion, Travers questions him and discovers that Wilson is posing as Travers, claiming that he is packing up his paintings for safe keeping. Then Helen Barton, who has promised to elope with Wilson, arrives, assuming that she is in the Wilson home. Travers, who has fallen in love with Helen, is agitated by this, and so reveals his true identity and summons Phelan. Wilson matches wits against the millionaire by attempting to convince the officer that the $500 bill is counterfeit. When the police arrive, both men claim to be Travers Gladwyn until a detective, intent on arresting Wilson for the kidnapping of Helen Barton, appears and identifies the real crook. The situation thus clarified, Travers wins Helen.
