The story
“Caleb Green, a rich factory owner, is hated by his employees for his cruelty. An able champion of the workers is found in Dr. Middleton, a famous surgeon and earnest toiler for the betterment of industrial conditions. He threatens to expose Green’s flagrant violation of the health regulations in the conduct of his factory unless he reforms. However, by chance, Green gets hold of a letter affecting the reputation of Dr. Middleton’s daughter, and using this as a trump card, he defies the doctor to do his worst. The surgeon calls at the Green home and tries to obtain the compromising letter. A quarrel ensues, which happens to be witnessed by a servant, and the doctor leaves. An hour later, the factory owner is found dead, and evidence points to Middleton. On the jury, at the trial, is a certain Arthur Graves, a mechanical engineer. He is the one member who votes every time for the doctor’s acquittal. At length it comes out who is ‘hanging’ the jury, and when asked why he believes that the prisoner should go free, Graves tells a remarkable story.
“Many years before, it seems, Dr. Middleton attended the wife of Graves through a critical operation. The crisis was not past, when word came that his own wife lay dying and that his services were required at once. Duty prevailed over love. Middleton saved the wife of the mechanic at the cost of the life of his own wife. The jury turns to the man. Scarcely have they written their verdict ‘not guilty,’ however, when a court officer appears. ‘Gentlemen,’ he says, ‘the trial is over. The real culprit has confessed.’ It is one of Green’s employees, who is guilty of his death.”
Summary from Reel Life · 23 January 1915
