How the Trigger-Finger of a Man Long Dead Sent Another Man To His Death
In this gigantic mystery story, Mr. Keeler has employed atavism in his plot, a thing that has probably never before been attempted in mystery fiction. Starting in pirate days with the bitter enmity between Captain Kidd and Captain Quarlbush whom Kidd marooned on a desert island for mutiny and thus deprived of a share in the spoils, Mr. Keeler conjures up in modern times a descendant of each of them and shows how in a mysterious way Quarlbush was finally avenged.
Standing one day before a strange beautiful Chinese cabinet, in which he was seeking some priceless papers, Kidd's descendant falls dead. With many dramatic suspenses, Mr. Keeler tells the story of how Captain Quarlbush, bent upon revenge, secretly built the beautiful Chinese cabinet, which he plotted to fall into Kidd's hands. This is the basis of the primary plot to which are interlaced many other plots in this incomparable book.
