Jack Manly, our hero, is in love with a pretty shop girl, Eleanor Wilkens. Eleanor&apos;s father is a drunkard, and Jack&apos;s love is the one gleam of happiness that has come into her life. Our opening scene is the squalid home of the Wil...

One of the Bravest

Jack Manly, our hero, is in love with a pretty shop girl, Eleanor Wilkens. Eleanor's father is a drunkard, and Jack's love is the one gleam of happiness that has come into her life. Our opening scene is the squalid home of the Wilkenses. The drunkard abuses his daughter and staggers upstairs to sleep off the effects of a debauch. Eleanor sinks sobbing at the table; her chum calls and tries to cheer her up, when a knock at the door announces our hero. Eleanor's chum says: "Two is company and three is a crowd, so I'm off." Left alone with his sweetheart, Jack asks Eleanor to become his wife, and to allow him to take her to a home of comfort. At this moment the course of true love, which never runs smooth, strikes a rough spot. A stranger arrives and asks for an interview with Wilkens. That worthy is called from his peaceful slumbers to receive the shock of his life. The stranger produces a document and informs Wilkens that, through the death of his brother in Australia, he is left sole heir to a fortune of one million dollars, and that in the event of his death the said fortune is to be equally divided between his daughter, Eleanor Wilkens, and Jackson Burke, son of the said brother's partner. Burke is the bearer of the intelligence, and seeing the character of the present beneficiary, determines to shape matters to his own advancement. The rise of Wilkens in our next scene finds the Wilkens family installed in an elegant mansion, and the father completely under the sway of the plausible Burke. Burke forces his attentions upon Eleanor, who plainly shows her dislike. Wilkens asserts his authority and commands his daughter to become the wife of Burke. At this moment Manly calls; Wilkens orders him from the house. Jack asks Eleanor if it is her desire that he make for further effort to see her. "Certainly not," replies the girl, "I have promised to be your wife. Claim one when you will." Burke, realizing that he can never hope to win Eleanor by fair means, or get control of the Wilkens fortune while the drunkard lives, plots to gain his ends by foul methods. He plies Wilkens with liquor, and writes two notes, one to Jack Manly, telling him that Eleanor has met with an accident and is at the Manly home. The second note to Eleanor, telling her that Jack has been injured and wants her to come to him at once. Burke entrusts the delivery of these notes to a valet he bad brought with him from Australia. We see the note delivered to Jack at the engine house, and Jack is lured away by it. This is Burke's opportunity. He enters and engages the man Jack has left on watch in conversation, and induces the unsuspecting fireman to take a drink from his pocket flask. The liquor is drugged, and he falls senseless at Burkc's feet. It is but the work of a moment to cut the wires that carry the fire alarm, and Burke rushes hack to the house, drags the helpless Wilkens to the landing stairway that leads to the garret, then sets fire to the building. In the meantime Eleanor and Jack have met at his house, where they compare notes. Jack sees he has been the victim of treachery. "It is a plot to blacken my honor." He springs to the telephone to find the wires have been severed, then to the door to discover that Burke's messenger has locked the door. With a cry of rage, he hurls a chair through the window, and we see Jack and Eleanor come down the fire escape. The still alarm. Jack rushes to the engine house, sees the wires have been cut, and the man he left on duty lying insensible on the floor. He grabs an ax from the wall and strikes the gong. It is the still alarm. His quick brain realizes at once that it is a plot to destroy the man that stands between Jackson Burke and a fortune. We next see the sleeping firemen leap from their cots into their bunkers and slide down the poles: the horses dash from the stalls, and in thirty seconds after the first stroke of the ax on the gong, the engine driven by Jack Manly is headed for his sweetheart's home. Then ensues a fire scene that for realism has never been duplicated. The central building, the home of Eleanor, is at the head of the street, a full half city block extends to the left of the building, and during the action people are seen to appear at the windows of the different houses: furniture is carried out: engine after engine, company after company arrives, and go into action. Brave Jack Manly enters the house of his sweetheart, rescues the unconscious Wilkens, and when he returns to the window by which he entered, finds his escape cut off by the flames. The life saving nets are brought into play, the fire gains headway, and the work of rescue goes on. There have been fire rescues in motion pictures, but this scene sets a new pace: nothing like it has ever been attempted before. It is realism personified, a scene properly presented and a part of the story, not a dragged-in scene, but an incident in the drama it was arranged for. Our next scene is the interior of the engine house. The shattered Wilkens is brought in on a cot. Burke, little suspecting the reception he is to receive, enters. Wilkens accuses him of setting fire to his house, after tying him to the stairs in the garret. The chief orders an officer to arrest Burke, who is handcuffed and taken to jail. Six months later we are at the wedding of Jack Manly and Eleanor Wilkens. The chief arrives and graciously decorates Jack with a medal for his many deeds of bravery while acting as "One of the bravest."

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One of the Bravest

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