The story
“May Wilson and Jack Preston are employed at a downtown brokerage office, she as telegraph operator of the private wire of the firm, and he as head bookkeeper. The young people are fond of each other, and at the opening of the play have just made an engagement to spend the evening in each other’s company at one of the theatres. May has been teaching Jack mysteries of the Morse Code and is greatly pleased when she finds that he has so far mastered it as to be able to rap back an answer to her messages. After May has left the office for the day, the head of the firm calls Jack into his private office and there confides to him that there is something wrong with the books of the concern, and tells Jack to investigate. On looking into the matter, Jack discovers that his fellow worker, Carson, is the defaulter, and accuses him to his face. Alone in the office, Carson begs Jack to shield him, while Jack insists that he must make their employer conversant with the facts. As Jack leans far into the large safe to deposit the ledgers of the firm, Bill thrusts him inside, and turning the knob entombs him alive in the steel prison. Trembling with fear at his act, Bill steals cautiously from the office.
“May, becoming impatient when theatre time arrives and Jack fails to call for her, decides that he must still be working at the office, forgetful of the lateness of the hour. She proceeds to the office to remind him of his appointment, and finding it deserted, she is about to leave, when muffled groans reach her from the safe. She realizes that it must be her sweetheart who is imprisoned, and that unless she can free him in short order, he will surely die of suffocation. Not knowing the combination of the safe, and being unable to reach by telephone her employer, she suddenly conceives the idea that if by telegraphic signal she can make known to the man in the safe that she is there, trying to help him, he in his turn can in the same code give her the combination of the safe. This plan works out successfully, the two lovers tapping out their messages against the steel sides of the safe. The door of the safe finally yields to the combination, and Jack’s apparently lifeless body rolls to the floor of the office. May revives him, and amid tears and laughter they rejoice over Jack’s narrow escape. Haunted by the fear of what he has done, Bill creeps stealthily back into the office, opens the door of the safe, impelled to learn its horrible secret. As the door opens he is confronted by two officers of the law, who place him under arrest.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 1 October 1910
Another synopsis, from The Bioscope · 15 December 19102 min
“In an office a pretty girl is operating upon a telegraph apparatus, when her lover, the chief clerk, leans caressingly over her chair. Later her lover shows her some tickets for the theatre, and she consents to go with him. His employer calls him into a private office, and tells him that one of the clerks has been robbing the firm. Back into the office goes the chief clerk. Later, after his employer has left, a clerk fetches a ledger from the safe. After carefully comparing the writing the chief clerk finds that the guilty man is before him. The chief carefully takes the ledger into the strong room, and while inside the guilty man shuts the massive iron doors upon him. The air in the strong room begins to give out, and the chief struggles for breath.
“In her home the young lady is waiting and wondering what is delaying her lover. She decides to call at the office, and upon arriving there she looks carefully for her lover. She cannot find him, and thinking she hears a faint groan proceed from the strong room, she telephones the police. A sudden thought comes to her—why not try the ‘dots and dashes?’ As soon as this is done with the aid of a pencil, answering taps come back to her, and by this means she learns the word necessary to unlock the strong room, and when her lover falls out exhausted the police arrive, followed soon after by the guilty man, who is quietly captured.”
REVIEW by Walton, The Moving Picture News, October 8, 1910:
“A rattling good story; scrub woman you’re a dandy! Now I’m going to be critical; whoever saw a telegraph manager’s office in a branch, that had two clerks and one operator, like that one? More, even on Broadway in the head offices, where is this one? I was put out by someone in the theatre who made the dots and dashes. He followed you, on the screen, but neither spelt the words as an operator would. The general public—excluding such cranks as I am—will enjoy your honest work.”
