At the Crossing
Directed by O.A.C. LundJudge Dikeman gives Mike and Jim a long sentence in jail. A short time later the judge's daughter leaves for a boarding school. Her father is an inveterate smoker, and is warned several times by his own physician that he must stop smoking. He cannot break the habit off, however, and just about this time Mike and Jim are released from jail. They decide to get even with the judge, and under cover of night make their way to the side entrance of his house. Just as the two jail-birds enter the judge is seized with an attack of heart failure. The two house breakers enter the room and find it in total darkness; they discover they have cut the electric light wire instead of the telephone wire. They make out the shadowy form of the judge lying in his chair, and as one of them is about to smash him on the head with the blackjack, he sees how lifeless his body looks. Believing the judge to be dead, in a panic they rush for the door, but hear the daughter coming up the path. Seizing the judge's body they drag it behind a curtain and as she enters they manage to glide through the door, locking it on the outside. The girl, astonished at the darkness and the strange atmosphere, gropes about until she finds an oil lamp. She lights it, and is looking about the room when the judge's body falls forward, knocks the lamp over, and sets the room on fire. She rushes for the door, but it is locked. Mike and Jim hear her screams. They hesitate a second, then dash back to the house. Opening the door, they carry first the girl and then the inanimate body of her father safely out. A doctor is summoned and after working over the apparently lifeless form of the judge finally brings him to life. Mike and Jim decide this is a good time to "beat it," and are about to leave when the door is thrown open and they walk into the arms of a policeman. He seizes them, but the judge says, "Don't lock them up; they saved my life." He tells his story and the two vagrants slink away.
Where to Watch At the Crossing
