The Surprises of an Empty Hotel

The Hotel Continental on the seacoast is emptied one season of its tenants by an epidemic of diphtheria, and the patrons never return. Francis Trehurn Marchmont was one of its regular patrons, who, while engaged in a copper deal, had been gobbled up by the trust in the person of Thomas Cadwallader Bennt, the copper magnate. Marchmont later learned that the man he hated (Bennt) had gone to Paris, married, and died immediately thereafter. Marchmont goes to spend a week at the Hotel Continental for old-times' sake, and after his arrival, a steam yacht comes to anchor in the offing and the owner, a woman who signs herself "Mrs. Lucie Fairbanks," engages rooms at the hotel. Marchmont is greatly attracted to the lady, and the two become good friends, but as he supposes her husband to be alive, he does not presume upon their acquaintance. One night she raps on his door and whispers to him that burglars are in the hotel, as there are footsteps above her room, and they're the only tenants of the place. Marchmont finds himself involved in some exciting adventures which culminate in his overhearing "Mrs. Fairbanks" and a strange woman quarreling. He then learns that both women are common-law claimants to the fortune of old Cadwallader Bennt. The two men who he thought were burglars were unscrupulous lawyers who were trying to get Mrs. Bennt to New York State so they could serve papers on her. The rascals finally kidnap her and take her aboard the yacht, which is prevented by Marchmont. One of the men, in revenge, tries to blow up the yacht, but the tables are turned at the last minute and the lawyer perishes in the terrific explosion which obliterates the yacht. Marchmont and his bride-to-be are then left in peace and happiness.