President Grant and Artie watch a fencing contest while Jim hangs around outside the window. He sneaks upstairs and notices a guard with a big black box. After a slight brush with a couple of dogs, Jim hides in one of the rooms. The man with the box puts the box inside a dumb waiter while Jim watches outside the window. Baron Hinterstoisser invites Grant to a reception the next day and calls for the dumb waiter. One floor below, Jim stops the dumb waiter and replaces the contents with a book. The box arrives in Baron H.'s office who seals it and sends it downstairs. Baron H. then notices that Jim's missing and sends his guards after him. The guards find him with the daughter of the Armenian Ambassador. On the way out, Grant "accidentally" drops his hat and Jim scoops it up, along with whatever was in the box.
Baron H. Orders two of his guards to watch Jim and Artie. Back in Grant's office, Jim, Artie and Grant watch a kinescope of "President Grant" signing a secret defense pact with a foreign country. Grant tells them that seven men have disappeared in the embassy. Jim visits the office of the embassy's architect, Mr. Quincy, and finds a photograph. They identify one of the men in the photo as Dick January. January tells Jim that he only worked on a dumb waiter from that runs from the kitchen to the basement. Jim and Artie sneak out of the train, past the guards and to back to the embassy. On the way to the kitchen, Artie accidentally knocks a flower pot into an old well. "Hans" sneaks into the kitchen and meets the supervisor. He convinces Hilda to get some kirschwasse and brandy from the wine cellar. He then lets Jim in and the two go downstairs in the dumb waiter. They enter the basement and a bell goes off in the guard's room. The guard cuts of the dumb waiter, opens a hole in the floor to reveal a very nasty killing machine, and starts the far wall moving forward. He hears a scream, runs out into the corridor and Jim knocks him into the hole.
Back at the train, Artie's cat knocks over the cardboard figures of Jim and Artie. The guards rush inside and stop the record machine. This sets off a gas trap and the guards pass out. Jim and Artie play around with the switches in the guardroom and find the entrance to the security chamber. Count Hackmar arrives from the Fatherland. Our heroes find the safe, and find the lock's powered by steam. Jim beats up the guards and cuts off the steam and is about to leave when the steam starts relocking again. (Ooh, Artie go squash, all flat-flat.) So Jim is left holding the steam closed while the guards wake up. Artie replaces the slides and the seal. Baron H. calls for the box. Artie puts the box on the dumb waiter. Jim and Artie look for a way out when Artie stumbles across the flower pot he knocked over earlier. They set up a pipe, and "launch" Jim out of the well. Jim throws a rope down to Artie and they join Grant just as he's entering the embassy. Baron H. announces that his country is severing all ties with the US and shows the kinescope -- with several additional minutes provided by Artie.
The Ratings Are:
Artie disguises: five stars Artie's film five stars Jim fights: ten stars (bonus for fighting one-handed) Shirtlessness: two stars Kissing: one stars The Pipe Launch five stars Pike appearances: three stars President Grant: three stars Total: thirty-four stars
Pres Grant and Agents
The Bucket Escape