The story
“A girl learns that a certain man is in the habit of smuggling drugs to her father, a widower, at their home at Niagara Falls. She refuses to let her father have dealings with the man, and the former in his rage falls dead. The girl tracks the smugglers to their hut, but is captured and imprisoned. She writes a note explaining her predicament, encloses it in a bottle, and throws it into the Falls. Her lover finds it, rescues her, and captures the smugglers.”
Summary from The Bioscope · 20 February 1913
Another synopsis, from The Moving Picture News · 10 February 19122 min
“A widower and his only child, a daughter just budding into womanhood, lived at Niagara Falls. The man had retired from business with enough to live in comfort, but his lonely, purposeless life led him into evil habits and he became a drug fiend. He kept the secret from his daughter, and for a long time she did not suspect him. Then a chance meeting with the man who supplied him with the drug revealed everything to her, and she labored earnestly, but unsuccessfully, to reform her father. About this time she met a young artist from New York, and he immediately fell in love with her. The girl liked him, but because of her sorrow and anxiety did not respond to his passion. When the smuggler again appeared at her home, the girl refused to permit her father to have dealings with him. The old man stormed and raged, and in his weakened condition his emotion was fatal to him. Frantically endeavoring to reach the drug he craved, he staggered, and fell dead.
“Over the body of her father the girl vowed vengeance on the man she blamed for his death, and swore she would bring him to justice, if not for the crime, at least for some other misdeed. Her sweetheart found her still obdurate, she declaring that no love could enter her life until justice had been done. A chance encounter and an overheard conversation put the girl on her enemy’s track, and she trailed him to a lonely hut on the river bank above the falls, where the smugglers had their rendezvous. Listening at a window, she soon discovered their secret, and realized that she had the evidence to put her enemy and his pals in jail for long terms. Unfortunately for her, one of the gang, arriving late, surprised and captured her. The smugglers locked her in an upper room of the hut, intending to detain her until all danger to them was past. The window was too small for her to escape, and the room downstairs, the only other exit, was filled with her enemies. There was one chance to get word to the outside world, and the girl took it. She wrote a note telling where she was a captive, and put it into a bottle, corking it. She knew that a bottle might be overlooked, so she tied her light hat to it. Then she hurled this unique message into the swiftly rushing river, knowing that it would be speedily carried away. The message went down the upper river, over the falls and through the rapids, and lodged against a rock in the placid water beyond. There it was found by the artist, who was out rowing, and aid came on without delay. The smugglers, preparing to depart, were overpowered and led away to prison, while the girl at last listened to the pleadings of her lover, who had come to her aid in response to a plea for help sent over Niagara Falls and through the Whirlpool Rapids.”
