A Double Barrelled Detective Story

Mark Twain's darkly comic revenge tale begins with a proud Virginia bride who defies her father to marry Jacob Fuller, only to learn that her husband wed her from spite. After months of escalating cruelty and a final public humiliation, she endures in silence while her father dies of grief, and the story settles into a world ruled by pride, vengeance, and psychological torment. Years later, she reappears in New England as Mrs. Stillman, raising her son Archy in isolation until she discovers his uncanny gift for tracking by scent. Seeing in him the perfect instrument of retribution, she trains him to hunt Fuller not to kill him, but to drive him into despair. Archy's pursuit becomes a grim, suspenseful chase through disguises, false identities, and mining camps across the globe, from Denver to Montana and beyond. Along the way, Twain balances menace with frontier humor and communal life: rough miners trade stories about Archy's supernatural abilities, a cruel foreman meets his match, and a missing child is found by following the faintest trail. But the revenge plot turns tragic when Archy learns he has hunted the wrong man, forcing him to confront the terrible cost of certainty, obsession, and justice without proof. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.