Zeus

The Mystery of the Double Cross (1917)

Stars:

Mollie King, Léon Bary, Ralph Stuart

Peter Hale (Leon Bary) is returning to America from overseas via steamship to receive his inheritance. On board, he receives a telegram warning him to beware the Double Cross. He doesn't know what it means, until he becomes enamored of a mysterious woman occupying cabin no. 7. When a submarine is sighted, there is panic on shipboard. Peter and the mysterious woman are thrown together, and in the ensuing action, he sees a double cross symbol on her right arm, just below the shoulder. When the ship arrives in New York, Peter loses track of the woman.

His father's will stipulates that he is to marry a woman, "perfect in mind and body," who has been selected for him. She will reveal herself to him when the time comes, and he will know her by the sign of thee double cross on her arm. If anyone else marries her, then that person will inherit the Hale fortune.

Pondering this in his hotel room, Peter overhears Bridgely Bentley (Ralph Stuart), a gangster and social pirate, reveal a plan to bilk Herbert Brewster out of some valuable land. Brewster is unaware that there are valuable oil reserves beneath the land. Peter knows Brewster, who was a friend of Pete's father. Peter races ahead and obtains an option on the property to keep Bridgely from carrying out his scheme, thereby earning his enmity. But Peter also finds that Brewster's daughter, Phillipa, is the woman he met on board the ship. He begins to woo her, but is puzzled by how she at times accepts his courtship, and the next minute, rejects him, claiming that they have never met. When he tries to confront her, a Masked Stranger intervenes, telling him he must be true to the girl of the Double Cross. Bentley finds the original letter sent to Peter and realizes that if he can marry the girl of the Double Cross, the Hale fortune will be his.

The rest of the serial plays variations on these conflicts. Rather than traditional cliffhangers—the death traps are usually foiled in the course of each episode—the chapters end on an air of mystery or tension about what exactly is going on.