John Smiley
Flotsam (Thomas) is the daughter and helper of crusty old lighthouse keeper Joe Clark (Edward Ellis, in fine form). The reason why Clark lives 'out yonder' is because he's a fugitive from justice: years ago, he killed a man under complicated circumstances. Clark's official assistant is Amos Bart, but Flotsam does much of the work of maintaining the lighthouse.
In this detective picture, Janet marries Raoul Newell but leaves him when she finds out he is a thief. However, when he comes to her and asks her to help retrieve some papers stolen from him by Mr. and Mrs. Giles, she agrees and goes to work for the couple as a maid. But in reality, Raoul is after the couple's jewels.
Fearing that his daughter Patsy is becoming a tomboy, John Primmel sends her to a friend back East for education and refinement. Arriving in New York, Patsy discovers that her father's friend has died and his apartment is now inhabited by his son, Dick Hewitt. Dick allows Patsy to stay, and they hire a maid, a housekeeper, and a butler.
After his wife has run off with another man, New Yorker Bide Bennington decides to stay in Europe. After hearing of his wife's death years later, he returns home but finds it lonely there and heads West. While he is gone his house is robbed, and the leader of the crooks, Richard Glendo, leaves Bennington's coat and identification on an East River pier. The newspapers pick up on this and announce Bennington's "suicide." Since he is now officially deceased, Bennington decides to start life all over again -- but first he must foil a scheme by a gang of con artists, who have forced pretty Constance Brent to pose as Bennington's widow so that they can lay claim to his estate.
When the body of Col. S.F. Hargraves was found in a room in the rear of Cradelbaughs, a gambling house, with a bullet in his heart, the police found "Big Jim" Pemmican, the manager of the place, coolly pacing the floor when they arrived.
