The Awakening of Ruth (1917)

Ruth Hoagland grows up on the Florida Keys with no companion other than her father a halfwitted fisherman who spends most of his time hunting for buried treasure Vacationing yachtsman Bob Winthrop and Ruth fall in love but Winthrop returns to New York and after a year has forgotten Ruth After finding two chests in a cave Ruth locates her father unconscious from a fall She goes to the mainland for help but returns with the Reverend Josiah Arbuthnot and Dr William Strong to find her father dead Strong out of kindness offers to marry her but Ruth declines sure that Winthrop will return