When the guests try to identify the unknown man, they discover that they have been locked in the house. Before Wells can go to the hidden room, a stranger claiming to have lost his memory after he was attacked and tied up in the garage appears at the terrace door. Wells knocks Anderson unconscious during the interrogation and drags him into another room.
Wells claims that he does not have the blueprint Cornelia reveals other evidence incriminating him, and Anderson asks to question him alone. Reginald recognizes Jack, and the exposure of her fiancé makes Dale admit that she gave Wells the blueprint with the hidden room.
Reginald Beresford, a lawyer waiting in his car after he drove Richard to the house, comes inside. Dale asks Wells to hide the blueprint she took from Richard because the others might think that she killed him for it. Wells back to the house to examine Richard's body. While they fight over the blueprint, a figure appears in the darkness and shoots Richard, ending the first act.Ĭornelia calls Dr. Richard shows her a blueprint of the house, with a hidden room where the money might be. Dale summons Fleming's nephew, Richard (who rented the house to Cornelia), to learn about possible hiding places. Brooks also believes that Fleming hid the money, and wants to clear himself by finding it. While Cornelia shows Anderson to his room, Dale warns Brooks (who is actually Jack Bailey, and Dale's fiancé) that Anderson is a detective. Cornelia tells Anderson that she suspects Fleming embezzled from the bank and hid the money in the house. Wells leaves, and Detective Anderson arrives. Cornelia tells Lizzie and Dale that she has invited a police detective to visit because someone has been trying to break into the house at night. They tell Cornelia that Jack Bailey, a cashier at Fleming's bank, has disappeared and is suspected of stealing over a million dollars. Wells, the local coroner and an old friend of Fleming's, arrive for a visit. They are joined by Brooks, a gardener recently hired by Cornelia's niece, Dale Ogden. Cornelia is in the house with her maid, Lizzie, and Billy, a Japanese butler who is part of Fleming's household staff. According to a news report, a mysterious criminal known as "the Bat" has eluded police in the area.
Most of the servants, convinced that the house is haunted, have made excuses and fled. On a stormy evening, the electricity flickers on and off. Elderly, single Cornelia Van Gorder is renting an old, isolated Long Island mansion owned by the estate of Courtleigh Fleming, a bank president who had reportedly died several months before.
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