With awkward and inexpert touch, my story seeks to set forth
some of these.

Understand, please, that this book is rank melodrama. It has
scant literary quality. It is not planned to edify. Its only
mission is to entertain you and,--if you belong to the
action-loving majority, to give you an occasional thrill.

Perhaps you will like it. Perhaps you will not. But I do not
think you will go to sleep over it. There are worse
recommendations than that for any book.
ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE.
"Sunnybank,"
Pompton Lakes,
New Jersey.





BLACK CAESAR'S CLAN



CHAPTER I

THE HIDDEN PATH


Overhead sang the steady trade wind, tempering the golden