The Lurking Peril (1919)

Donald Britt (George Larkin) has an "unusal sort of brain" and induced by financial hardship, sells off the right to dissect his brain, AFTER his death, to a diabolical, scheming old professor, Dr. Bates (William Bechtel). But since the professor is many years older than Britt (with the Unusal Brain),and figures to outlive him, the anxious and unable-to-wait possessor holding the rights-to-dissect Britt's Unusal Brain, decides to hasten Britt's demise. Britt endures fourteen chapters of lurking peril, impending doom and hairbreadth cliffhangers before, with the aid of his sweetheart Phyllis Charlton (Anna Luther), the old professor meets his own untimely demise.