The Sign of the Spade

Howard Lamson is District Attorney and his interests are directed toward the arrest and conviction of a gang of crooks dealing in lottery tickets. Moving in respectable society is Wallace Thorpe about whom nothing definite is known. The District Attorney's sister, Shirley Lamson, plunges into settlement work to forget a great disappointment and unconsciously becomes a leading figure in the arrest of the law breakers and comes dangerously close to becoming a victim of the ring leader, Wallace Thorpe. One of the purchasers of lottery tickets under the stress of the third degree, breathes the name of Thorpe, and playfully at first, but in earnest at last, the District Attorney suspects Wallace Thorpe because of the similarity of the name. Thorpe chafes under the joke giving rise to the first real suspicion against him. Harmon, detective for the District Attorney, traces several parties who have purchased lottery tickets, and in the hope of convicting Thorpe on their evidence, arrests ...