The Celebrity

On the yacht Maria, a panicked flight from the law turns into a comic, high-stakes test of loyalty, pride, and mistaken identity. Mr. Cooke drives the party with battlefield zeal, determined to spirit the Celebrity Allen across the border to Canada before the police catch him, while the narrator insists Allen is innocent of embezzlement and trapped in a bizarre case of confusion that has ensnared the wrong man. Allen resists the plan, Senator Trevor fumes at the whole enterprise, and Farrar watches with cool suspicion as the group sets out in fine sailing weather but rising danger. As the boat crosses the lake, the cramped voyage becomes a pressure cooker of clashing motives. Miss Thorn proves sharp, practical, and unsettlingly perceptive, warning Crocker that his political future could be ruined if Allen is captured, while Miss Trevor teases him, hints at hidden feelings, and pleads with him to confess. Crocker misreads both women and presses on until a tugboat and then a police launch appear, tightening the noose. Even then, Cooke's extraordinary charm carries them through a tense meeting with Captain McCann, whose recognition of someone aboard suddenly changes everything. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.