Captain Flag finally succeeds in capturing the Black Hand and thwarts his piracy scheme, and the evil villain is hung from the yardarm.; A rash of fingerless corpses found in the East River attracts the attention of reporter Ruth Ransom, so she tracks the murders to a hidden opium den in a Chinese museum and is captured by the man only known as the Mandarin. Luckily for her, she was followed by the Fox who rescues her from the death trap and sends the Mandarin to the doom he granted so many others: a pit with a ladder whose rungs conceal blades that slice the fingers when grabbed.