Boys Will Be Boys by E. S. Turner

Author:E. S. Turner [E. S. Turner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571287888
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2012-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

This time the editor did not state that Gideon Barr was a disguised name. It is doubtful whether any of his readers were sufficiently interested in establishing Barr’s bona fides to search for Baylard’s Inn off Holborn and there hunt out a lithe, blue-eyed detective whose flaxen hair had a ‘golden glow’.

Succeeding issues of Pluck were still sprinkled with the adventures of such incontestable characters as the Duke of Wellington. An examination of these early numbers suggests that while fact may have been stranger than fiction, fiction may have sold better than fact. Was it proved that ‘real life’ was as dubious a recommendation for an adventure story as ‘home made’ for a windowful of cakes?

But what of Nelson Lee? In Number 23 came this announcement in bold type on the back page:

Some of our readers may remember reading the newspaper account of the wreck of the steamship Sandown, which took place on the 19th of last December. It was rendered more than usually interesting by the fact that the ill-fated steamer was bringing an enormous amount of bullion (or bars of gold) from Capetown to England, and that after the wreck no less than twenty of these bars (valued at as many thousand pounds) have been stolen. The Steamship Insurance Company, with whom the vessel was insured, place the matter in the hands of Mr Nelson Lee, of Gray’s Inn Road; and the celebrated detective after nearly three months’ sojourn in foreign climes has now returned to England, flushed with success. Newspapers and magazines have vied with each other in publishing more or less fanciful accounts of his latest and most brilliant triumph; but thanks to our arrangements with Mr Maxwell Scott the true and complete account will appear in the pages of Pluck. It will be published in the next issue under the title of ‘A False Scent, or the Adventures of Nelson Lee in Search of Sunken Gold.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.