The Lost Express (1917)

Episode 1: "The Lost Express" Helen Thurston is the daughter of General Thurston, inventor-financier man of wealth. Thurston owns a new invention for granulating gasoline, a mechanical invention affecting combustion, without which granulated gas is useless. Thurston's mansion is outside Capital City near Landport. With him live his daughter, Helen, and Gaston Pitts, private secretary. Thurston regards Pitts as a future husband for Helen, who distrusts the man. The representative of a foreign government, Valquez negotiates for rights to Thurston's process. Thurston is obdurate. Valquez hires crooks to obtain the device. In this gang are "The Leach," "The Baron" and "The Hare." "The Hare" has a harelip. He resembles Pitts but for that deformity. This gang burglarizes the Thurston place. Helen gives the alarm. General Thurston is paralyzed by a bullet wound. Helen hires an express train to transfer the invention and models to a city bank vault. The express train completely disappears between stations from a single line of rail with no switches. Helen rescues the crew of the missing train in a desperate leap from a speeding engine to a wagon pulled by runaway horses.