Brother Officers (1915)

A bookmaker's son is brought up in an evil atmosphere in London. His father's clerk teaches him to cheat at cards when he is too young to know the wickedness of it. This clerk, whose name is Stanton, absconds with all his employer's money, and shortly after is followed by the boy's mother, who is infatuated with him. The shock kills the boy's father, and the boy, homeless, goes out into the world with one great ambition, to find Stanton and kill him. After knocking about for some years the bookmaker's son, now a young man, enlists in the British Army under the name of Hinds. He eventually becomes a sergeant, and in a fight with some native Afghans wins the gratitude and friendship of Lieutenant Pleydell by saving his life at much risk to his own. About this time Hinds wins the Calcutta Sweep, a famous lottery, and buys a commission in the army with the money, thus becoming a "brother officer" of Pleydell's, who agrees to train Hinds how to act as "an officer and a gentleman." In the meantime, Stanton has made a large fortune in Australia, and no one would recognize the bookmaker's clerk in the affluent millionaire, "Robert Button. " He returns to England, and by chance meets Pleydell, and in a game of cards cheats him out of a large sum of money. Pleydell gives him his I.O.U. and Hutton uses it as a club to force Pleydell to introduce him into good society. To stave off the day of reckoning as long as possible, Pleydell presents Hutton to his mother, Lady Margaret Pleydell, and to his friend Honora, the Baroness Royden, as well as to many other intimates. Hutton is strongly attracted to Honora, with whom Hinds has already fallen in love without suspecting that she and Pleydell love each other. Hutton's attentions to Honora are distasteful to her and goad Pleydell to a fury. His anger and despair are so marked that Hinds is moved to force him to confide the reason. A little later Hinds accidentally overhears a conversation between Honora and Pleydell which reveals the truth to him. He has a sharp struggle with himself for a while, since all he has to do to crush Pleydell and have a fair chance to win Honora for himself is to allow events to take their own course, but eventually his better nature triumphs and he decides to do what he can to help Pleydell. Accordingly he sends for Hutton. All the while he has had a vague feeling that he has seen Hutton somewhere before, and when Hutton comes to him he suddenly recognizes him and exposes him. Hutton is forced to give up Pleydell's I.O.U., and Hinds shows Lady Pleydell and Honora how Pleydell was cheated. The gratitude of Pleydell and Honora and the rest is very great, but Hinds has been sorely hurt, and, knowing that the best thing for him is to go away, he bids them farewell. The last view we have of him shows his face drawn in suffering over his loss and the thought of what might have been.