The Mystic Ball (1915)

• 76%
• 1915
• Drama
• William Robert Daly

Tom Putnam, a young lawyer, is engaged to marry Bessie Watson. Across from Putnam's law office, Morris Kane conducts a disreputable bucket shop, and he has designs on Putnam's modest income. Mrs. Watson presents Tom and Bessie with money to buy furniture for their new home, and Tom borrows $1,000 to assist him in paying for its construction. John Graham, a friend of Tom's dead father, visits the young attorney and has his will drawn. Being summoned from the city, Graham leaves the will and valuable stocks with Tom, who places the papers in a safe deposit vault. Kane endeavors to tempt Tom to invest in stocks, but with ill success. Huri, an East Indian, calls upon young Putnam on business, and while there the native leaves his most prized possession. Then strange things happen. Kane, through decoy stock memorandum, tempts Tom to invest all his money in bucket shop investments. The stocks fall and Tom is asked for margins. Money given Tom by Mrs. Watson for furniture, money received from his mortgage, and money realized from the valuable papers of John Graham disappear into the coffers of the unscrupulous bucket shop proprietor. At the marriage altar, the face of John Graham comes before Tom, whose possessions were entrusted to Tom's care, then a cablegram is received, stating that he will soon be borne. The young man then writes a letter to Bessie, saying "Dearest, I am taking the coward's way out, but I cannot live and have you know me for what I am, a thief." And then the gun which Tom holds in his had suddenly dissolves into a crystal ball as Huri enters Tom's office. Into the crystal glass, Tom has been peering and also into the future of what might have been. He has been permitted to see what temptation he might have been led to. He refuses the importunities of the bucket shop promoter and he and his sweetheart select the furniture for their little home given them by Bessie's old mother.