Summary
A physician’s fiat exiles celebrated sleuth Jerry Brennon from gas-lit city corridors to the vertiginous hush of Senator Reed’s timbered eyrie, yet the so-called convalescence is a mere prologue to a dance of shadows: a whispered legend of ghosts, a rifle-crack that splits alpine dusk, and the abrupt vanishing of Helen Reed—heiress, rebel, unwilling fiancée to the patrician schemer Schuyler Hastings. Inside the cabin’s worm-eaten walls, trapdoors sigh open to reveal the trembling heiress, manacled by silk threats rather than iron. Brennon, refusing to be a pawn of convalescence, sleds down moon-slick passes, galvanizes a rustic sheriff, and returns in time to ensnare the kidnappers as they re-enter their own crime scene. Under kerosene glare, the thugs confess the baroque charade: Hastings engineered the abduction so that his counterfeit heroism might purchase Helen’s gratitude in the coin of matrimony. The Reeds reclaim their daughter; Brennon claims her forever, converting a case file into an engagement ring.
Synopsis
When, after three years of active service, ace detective Jerry Brennon is ordered by his doctor to take a rest, Senator Reed, Jerry's staunch supporter since he arrested two crooks burglarizing the Reed home, prevails upon the detective to stay at his cabin in the mountains. Warned that the cabin is haunted, Jerry's suspicion is aroused when a bullet whizzes past his head. While searching the cabin, Jerry discovers a secret door that conceals a sobbing Helen Reed, who has been missing since her refusal to marry Schuyler Hastings. Learning that Helen has been kidnapped, Jerry drives to the village, enlists the aid of the sheriff and rushes back in time to arrest the kidnappers when they return to the cabin. Caught in the act, Helen's abductors admit that they were hired by Schuyler, who was planning to rescue Helen in a ploy to win her love. The Reeds are overjoyed to have their daughter back, and Jerry makes their happiness complete when he proposes to Helen.
