An American Gentleman (1915)

Helen Davis, a girl of four, is run down by a reckless driver and suffers considerable injuries. The frightened driver, thinking he has killed the girl, carries the limp form into the woods, where later it is discovered by gypsies. After nursing the child back to health, these roamers attempt to return the baby to its parents, but their mission being misinterpreted they are driven from the Davis estate. For the next fourteen years, Helen Davis wanders well over the face of the earth with her Nomad companions, finally returning with them to the scenes of her childhood. The theft of a horse in the neighborhood brings the gypsies under the sway of an unscrupulous lawyer, who has had for a client an aged eccentric named Hathaway. The old man, having lost considerable money through a bank failure, has buried his treasure, drawing a cipher map denoting its whereabouts. This he shows to his attorney, the unscrupulous lawyer. The attorney determines to secure the buried treasure, and through the co-operation of the gypsy chiefs the Hathaway house is ransacked for the map. While this crime is being committed old man Hathaway is murdered. He leave a son, George Hathaway, who has just returned from a European trip, and who has not only determined to recover the family wealth but also avenge his father's murder. In the execution of these dual objects he meets Helen Davis, now Corina, a gypsy beauty, and straightaway falls in love with her. The trials and tribulations incident to the recovery of the family gold chest carries George Hathaway through many thrilling adventures, but eventually ends in his securing the chest and in the leaders of the gypsies plunging dramatically to their death through a broken bridge into a gully hundreds of feet below. Helen Davis is quickly restored to her father, who can do nothing but consent to her marriage to George Hathaway.