"I must see you to-night without fail. Meet me at the crossroads between Beston Tracey and the Eastbourne Road. I shall be there at eleven o"clock, and, if you want to preserve your life, you had better bring me a substantial installment of the money you owe me." The letter was signed "Vassalaro." "He must be mad to write a letter like this," John Lexman said to the Greek, Kara. "I"ll meet the little devil and teach him such a lesson in politeness as he is never likely to forget!" "Will you pay him?" said Kara. John made no answer. "Then you"d better take your revolver," said the Greek. English novelist Edgar Wallace (1875-1932), author of Sanders of the River, Bones, and The Angel of Terror, was at the peak of his abilities with this novel of desperate kidnapping, murder, and detection.