His Last Laugh

Duke Don Ferdi, while playing a piano in a cabaret, sees the picture of a pretty American girl and determines to wed her. His sweetheart finds the clipping and follows him. Meanwhile two crooks rifle his belongings and steal a portrait of his ancestor, who had ridiculed the theory of Christopher Columbus that an egg could be made to stand on end. On the back of the painting they find directions which if followed they believe will reveal a fortune. They are instructed to obtain a certain ring. It develops that this ring has been given to the rich American girl by her suitor. As the girl is riding with him the crooks lift her from her mount and carry her away in a taxi. Ferdi lowers himself from a railroad bridge and rescues her, but not until the crooks have obtained the ring. But the duke is now receiving the favor of the girl and her family, the young American being apparently discarded. The ring, on careful examination, reveals directions to obtain a medal which Ferdi always wears. This is easy. Ferdi returns to the cabaret and is on the job when his new friends arrive on a slumming trip inspired by the disgruntled suitor. He sees an opportunity to stamp Ferdi as an impostor and confronts him at the piano. The duke, however, displays his medal as proof of his claim, the crooks rush in and snatch it and speed away. They go to a lonely spot, as directed by the medal, dig up a box and get into their machine just as a police car arrives. Their trouble goes for naught in the lively chase which follows, they are caught and the box recovered. Ferdi now impatiently awaits the opening of the box, but much to his chagrin it contain not wealth but an ancient joke about the chicken that crossed the street, which the shade of Columbus doubtless considered a snappy retort to the ridicule to which he had been subjected centuries before. Now spurned by the rich girl, Ferdi is in despair until his cabaret sweetheart, always close at hand, offers her sympathy and all ends happily.