Book excerpt: It began with the Night News Editor of the Record, in a foul temper, sending Hugh Curtis out on a time-wasting chase to confirm a totally uninteresting rumour. It developed into the biggest scoop the paper had ever known and one of the most unusual and dangerous stories which Hugh had ever covered. The tip-off, which might have rated three lines in an early edition, concerned a bogus telephone message which sent a certain Mrs. Ward hurrying to a London suburban hospital. The pay-off was a disappearance which sent Hugh to a desolate rendezvous with men who were holding a nation to ransom. For once he was one step ahead of Mollie Bourne of the Courier and it was not in Mollie’s nature to play second fiddle to anyone. Pursuing her own line of investigation she too was swept into the weird and thrilling climax to Paul Somers’ absorbing new story which is a fast-moving and exciting successor to Beginner’s Luck.