The Fortune Hunter

The narrative introduces Nat Duncan, a cynical café bouncer whose world is upended by the sudden reappearance of his former street-hustling confidante, Handsome Harry. Harry, now surprisingly affluent and accompanied by a bejeweled socialite, presents Nat with a tantalizing proposition: a blueprint for marrying into wealth. He offers financial backing—clothing, a train ticket to the unassuming town of Radville—in exchange for a share of Nat’s future marital gains. Nat, embracing this new identity, meticulously crafts the persona of a virtuous, well-to-do churchman, inadvertently becoming the romantic target of numerous local women, including Josie Lockwood, the banker’s daughter. His path soon crosses with Betty Graham, whose father's struggling drugstore is a casualty of his quixotic quest to extract gasoline from crude oil. Nat, with unexpected business acumen, revitalizes the drugstore. This newfound stability is threatened by Harry's arrival, his own fortune squandered, as he attempts to coerce Nat into marrying Josie to recoup his investment. However, Nat, demonstrating a surprising ingenuity, employs a clever ruse involving a wax model to feign fickleness, thus dissolving his engagement to Josie and clearing the way for his true affection for Betty.