Beatrice Faifax Episode 3: Billy's Romance (1916)

Billy is a fourteen-year-old messenger boy. When he is not delivering messages, he is learning telegraphy. He delivers a telegram to Judge Richard Morton, from the warden of Sing Sing. It reads: "Peter Raven escaped. Thought to be headed for New York." Peter Raven is a desperate criminal. A scene shows Judge Morton sentencing him. Raven creates a disturbance in court and declares that his first act when he is free will be to kill the Judge. While Billy is waiting for an answer to the telegram he encounters Judge Morton's daughter, Jean, aged twelve, in the hallway and falls in love with her. They are having a delightful conversation, when Jean's governess, Mme. Laurette, carries her off. Billy, with his first love sorrow, writes a letter to Beatrice Fairfax, asking for advice. Beatrice receives it just as Jimmy Barton, star reporter, is started out on the story of the escape of Peter Raven. Jean writes a playful note to Billy, calling him her knight, and asking him to save her from an imaginary ogre, her governess. Little does she know that the woman is a villainess. As Jean dispatched the note, Mme. Laurette receives a check for a trunk. She is the wife of Raven. She hurries to the Pennsylvania Station, where she receives the trunk and takes it to her home. Inside is Raven. They plan to kidnap Jean. Meantime Jimmy Barton, who has been sleuthing, discovers that Raven has come to New York. He starts to trace the final destination of the trunk, Billy has received Jean's playful note and hurries to her home. When he arrives he observes suspicious actions between an alleged blind man and the governess. The latter, with a thimble on her finger, begins tapping on the window pane. Billy's quick ear detects the Morse code. She is sending the blind man a message regarding the plans for kidnapping. Billy notifies Beatrice. The kidnapping plan is to steal Jean while she is taking her automobile for a ride with the governess. Jean and lime, Laurette come out of the house and enter the automobile. The kidnappers follow in another car. Billy, desperate at the delay of Beatrice, hangs on the steps of the kidnappers' machine. When a lonely spot in the country is reached, the kidnappers pretend to have a breakdown and they hail the car containing the governess and Jean. When it stops they overpower the chauffeur, drug the child and escape with Billy still clinging to the step. In the flight Billy is thrown from the car, but Beatrice soon appears and picks him up. They follow the kidnappers to a shack at the river's edge and burst in upon them just as little Jean is recovering consciousness. The kidnappers then throw Jean out of the window and into the stream below, but she is rescued by Billy. Jimmy and two detectives row across the river to the kidnappers' house. With the detectives following, Jimmy burst into the room. Beatrice is rescued and Raven, Mme. Laurette and the other kidnappers overpowered. Beatrice, Jimmy and Billy take Jean home. When the Judge and his wife learn of Billy's bravery, they promise that someday when the children are older, and Billy is earning more money, they will entertain the proposition that they wed. Jimmy and Beatrice hurry back to their office with another good story.