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The story in 10 parts

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   A bankruptcy sends Croyden into hiding

   The book opens on the porch of a golf club above Northumberland. Colin Macloud reads in the paper that the brokers Royster and Axtell have failed, with debts of twenty million dollars. Geoffrey Croyden is not so lucky as his friends.

   Upstairs, Croyden tells Macloud the sad arithmetic. His father left him about half a million dollars, and a company investment and a loan swallowed four hundred thousand of it. Only twenty thousand is left, an income of twelve hundred a year. He decides to vanish to a small property he owns on the Eastern Shore.

   Macloud, the one friend who rings true, says the crowd on the Heights drops anyone who loses money. Dinner at the Cavendish house proves him right. The sharpest pain is Elaine Cavendish, rich in her own right. Croyden thanks heaven he never proposed, and he says goodbye with a kiss on her hand.

   Losing money costs Croyden his club, his friends and, he believes, his right to love.

2. 2

   Clarendon gives him a past and a household

   Croyden travels east on the cheaper train and reaches the town of Hampton on a branch line through sand hills.

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3. 3

   A pirate's letter points to buried jewels

   In a slant-top mahogany desk in the library, Croyden presses a carved lion's head, and a hidden drawer slides open.

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4. 4

   Hampton's old manners and Davila's bright eyes

   Captain Charles Carrington calls first and invites Croyden to supper.

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5. 5

   Annapolis, stolen wallets and a captured pair

   Macloud comes down, reads the letter and urges Croyden to cross the Bay at once.

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6. 6

   The search fails but the blackmail begins

   For three weeks Croyden and Macloud dig by night and drag the bottom of the Bay, claiming to have lost a ruby ring overboard.

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7. 7

   Elaine arrives and both women vanish

   Elaine writes to Macloud that she will come to Croyden whatever convention says.

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8. 8

   Pride about money keeps love at arm's length

   Croyden holds a firm rule.

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9. 9

   Real worth comes from birth and character

   The book sets two kinds of society side by side.

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10. 10

    A light touch keeps the adventure bright

    The tone is breezy and full of banter.

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