| abstract | - Hack O'Hara is a cab driver in a large city. He picks up an older man as a fare, headed for an address that could meean a $2.50 fair for Hack. The passenger asks if Hack thinks there is a car following them. Hack says he couldn't tell, but he'd zig-zag to lose the potential tail. The passenger tells Hack to pull over. Hack stops while the passenger looks on the floor for his false teeth. A sedan with two men pull next to Hack's cab, aiming guns at the passenger and O'Hara. Hack punches one of the gunmen, not wanting to lose the large fare. Both gunmen tackle Hack, but he kicks one of them in the bread-basket. The other gunman whiplashes Hack with the butt of his revolver. With Hack down-for-the-count, the passenger attempts to flee. One of the gunmen fires his gun and mows the passenger down. The thugs search the man's body for his false teeth, but they are missing. The police arrive and find the body, but not Hack O'Hara or the ruffians, although his cab remains. The cops deduce Hack O'Hara fought with the man and killed him. Hack wakes up in a run-down, seedy slum cellar. He crawls out, hearing a paperboy shouting the headlines of the "Taxi Murder". Hack gets one of the papers, discovering he is wanted for the murder of one John Alexis, a diamond merchant by trade. Checking his pockets, he also finds out he has the erstwhile passenger's false teeth. He discovers each tooth contains valuable diamonds. He deduces the thugs were after the diamonds, and Alexis hid the teeth in Hack's pocket. Hack hides from the police and the crooks. He places a newspaper ad to have the interested parties, the crooks, to meet him at St. Martin's Cemetery at midnight. Hack contacts a policeman he knows, one Officer McCarthy, to go to the meeting place 10 minutes early. Three crooks keep the appointment. Hack has placed the teeth on a tombstone. Hiding behind it, he talks to the thugs. One of the thugs thinks it's the teeth talking, and get frightened. His companions keep him from shooting at the teeth, saying they know that they'd killed Alexis. Hack O'Hara and McCarthy leap out to arrest the men after hearing the confession. Hack punches two of the gang, getting one of their guns. O'Hara and McCarthy shoot at the men, wounding them in the legs. Officer McCarthy will get a commendation, Hack O'Hara suggests. Hack got a bonus from work for his efforts.
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