What a Clue Will Do (1917)

Potts, the detective, with his pupil, Pan, are called by a mother to save her child. They go to the spot, accompanied by their hound, in a dog grip, and find the broken-hearted mother, who gives them a shoe and a little shirt as the only means of identifying her child. They see the cub reporter, who has been sent to the neighborhood on a lost child story, and think that she is the kidnapper. Potts enters the saloon, after he sees the reporter enter. She has gone to report on the telephone to her editor. Potts holds up the whole room, and then he and Pan proceed to search the premises. One particularly large person threatens them with a bungstarter. While Pan is waiting for Potts, he scrapes acquaintance with the reporter. When the detectives return from their fruitless search they see the big fellow playing the piano. The distracted mother comes in, and seeing the piano player she recognizes him as her child. Potts takes one look at the tiny shoe and the shirt and gives up the case.