Detective Swift

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An international thief posing as Count Otronski steals a valuable necklace from Mrs. Henderson Smith, a member of New York's Four Hundred. Her maid, Alice Caldwell, is accused of the crime and arrested. Detective Swift is put on the case and finds a clue which convinces him that Alice is entirely innocent. Assuring her that he will make every effort to prove her innocence, he leaves her in custody to follow up an important clue. This clue leads him across the Atlantic to Europe and through Europe to Egypt. He discovers that Count Otronski is on the same boat and keeps a close watch on him. Count Otronski meets Mrs. Girard, a wealthy widow, and tries to force his attentions on her. Discovering by accident that a fellow passenger who has introduced himself as a prominent Chicagoan is in realty Detective Swift. Otronski leaves the boat at Alexandria and decides to take the train across Egypt and rejoin the vessel at Pt. Said. Detective Swift tries to follow him and the trail leads him through Heliopolis and across the great Lybian Desert to the encampment of some Arabs. Here Otronski bribes the Arabs to do away with Swift, who is following him. As the Arabians seize Swift they recognize on his hand a ring which had been given him some years before by Sheik Hassan, the leader of the tribe. This ring is engraved with the talisman of the tribe. They take Swift to Hassan who sends out his couriers to head off Otronski; they are unsuccessful, but afford Swift every facility for getting to the seaboard to reach the vessel before it has passed out of Egyptian waters. Detective Swift regains the vessel at Alexandria and Otronski, thinking himself safe, is so frustrated on seeing Swift that he passes the jewels to Mrs. Girard for safe keeping. Swift has overheard the conversation and demands the jewels from Mrs. Girard, who surrenders them.