The Severed Hand Filming Locations

The Severed Hand, a society of Italian criminals and blackmailers, swear to kill Danny Dawson, who has turned traitor. Dawson has a daughter, Nan, whom he mistreats. One day while he is beating her, he is overtaken by the rector and his nephew, Dick Ralston. Ralston punishes Dawson. Nan is taken in as a member of the rector's household. At intervals, every time Dawson catches his daughter alone, he beats her until Nan makes the threat that if he returns again she will kill him. One night while Dawson is looking for his daughter he is followed by Guinio and Pietro, members of the Severed Hand Society. From a distance Nan sees the Italians kill him. The murderers escape. She runs to her dead parent. A moment afterwards Dick Ralston and the rector arrive on the scene. In view of her recent oath, they believe she is guilty. Although Ralston loves her, she cannot convince him of her innocence. To save herself from suffering for a crime, her innocence of which she cannot prove. Nan escapes with Guinio and Pietro. After a lapse of ten years, Nan is known as the Countess Messina. She is a secret agent in the employ of the Severed Hand Society. She maintains herself in splendor and has cultivated the bad habits of a certain class of European aristocracy. Dick Ralston is now chief of a division of the secret service assigned to round up the members of the Severed Hand Society. There is to be a ball at a foreign embassy. Nan attends for the purpose of stealing certain valuable documents from Captain Korsloff of the Russian embassy. Ralston's men are already on the trail. Nan lures Korsloff to her apartments and there drugs him and steals the papers. For additional security she then goes in hiding in a foreign quarter of the city. Ralston and his men come to the apartments to arrest her and find her gone. A woman whom, however, can render the most cleverly laid plans useless. Cooped up with Guinio and Pietro, she runs out of cigarettes. The ordinary brands of cigarettes do not suit her taste and she sends her maid to her apartment for a stock of her own material, Ralston and his men follow the maid back. The secret service men force their way into the hiding place. As a last resort, Guinio releases a cask of deadly fumes in the room. Ralston and Nan recognize each other simultaneously. All are being overcome by the fumes when Nan drags Ralston to the open window and compels him to inhale the fresh air. Guino is overcome, but his last effort is an attempt to shoot Ralston. Nan anticipates his move and kills him at a single shot. In return for saving Ralston's life Nan goes free and her old life is wiped out and forgotten when she marries Ralston.