A Close Shave

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Mr. Marc and his wife are at breakfast when the butler announces an early caller and tenders his master a card bearing the name of Mr. Bunco. When Marc hurries into the reception room he is greeted by a gentleman of prepossessing appearance, who, after a warm handshake, introduces himself as the agent of the Silver Sucker mine. He has heard that Mr. Marc is seeking a profitable investment and was advised by a friend of Mr. Marc's to see this latter. The gentleman offers other credentials, but the mention of the friend's name is enough for the unwary Marc, and he refuses to put the gentleman to such an inconvenience. At length it is arranged, and Marc informs the gentleman that if he will call at his office at 2 o'clock they will close the deal. Mr. Marc wears a beard, and on his way downtown he suddenly resolves to shave. And a half hour later when he bumps into an old acquaintance on the street this latter refuses to recognize him, much to Marc's amusement. At his office when he enters his stenographer looks at him strangely and tells him abruptly that Mr. Marc has not arrived. And it is some time before the young lady can be persuaded that this clean-shaven chap is her employer. At 2 o'clock the agent for the Silver Sucker is on hand and the deal is closed, Mr. Bunco leaving the office exultantly with a large-sized cheek, while Mr. Marc is the possessor of some extravagant-looking stock certificates which could not possibly be worth less than 5 cents each. At the bank Mr. Bunco is refused payment on the check and is advised to bring Mr. Marc over to identify him. Shortly after the two gentlemen enter the bank, but the cashier, a personal friend of Mr. Marc's, stares at the little man peculiarly and suspiciously and desires to know what sort of a sucker he is thought to be. Mr. Marc is in a rage when, after he has visited Smith, a real estate man of his acquaintance, he is told to get out. He meets even sorrier treatment when he calls on Brown at this latter's office. Here the janitor is called in and Marc is thrown out the window into a rain barrel. In a rage Marc goes home to change his clothes and to tell his troubles to his wife, who, at first, is also skeptical about his identity. Finally, however, she volunteers to accompany her husband to the bank and identify him. A strange thing happens when they are about to enter the bank. Mr. Bunco is being ejected by the watchman and is seized by two policemen who "identify" him as "Con" Coe, alias George Stick, wanted for bogus mining deals. The picture ends in Mr. Marc receiving his check and congratulations from the cashier of the bank.