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This story is compounded of distinct elements of mystery, adventure, and romance narrative. Briefly, it is the history of Edward Denman, heir to a treasure, of his romance-a most unsatisfactory one-with Lucy 'Hill, ' and of the efforts of the ubiquitous Hagen clan to seize Denman's hidden treasure. Barnes, a railroad engineer, is a martyr to the romance, and suffers meekly thru the fabulous antics of his social superiors. The Denman treasure is walled in a vault with literally countless doors of impregnable construction. It proves impossible to locate the treasure by breaking open the doors, so the Hagens concentrate on finding the hidden code showing the number of the vault which holds the jewels. Their machinations involve marriages of convenience, mayhem, train-wrecks, maimings, and schemings against obstacles galore. Like many of Shiel's novels, the ending is disappointing because it seems so far from according with our natural expectations.
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