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The Wheel O' Fortune
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
223 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1907
About the author
Louis Tracy
191 books16 followersLouis Tracy (1863 - 1928) was a British journalist, and prolific writer of fiction. He used the pseudonyms Gordon Holmes and Robert Fraser, which were at times shared with M.P. Shiel, a collaborator from the start of the twentieth century.
Around 1884 he became a reporter for a local paper - 'The Northern Echo' at Darlington, circulating in parts of Durham and North Yorkshire; later he worked for papers in Cardiff and Allahabad.
During 1892-1894 he was closely associated with Arthur Harmsworth, in 'The Sun' and 'The Evening News and Post'.
Around 1884 he became a reporter for a local paper - 'The Northern Echo' at Darlington, circulating in parts of Durham and North Yorkshire; later he worked for papers in Cardiff and Allahabad.
During 1892-1894 he was closely associated with Arthur Harmsworth, in 'The Sun' and 'The Evening News and Post'.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2017
Whew, what a thrill-ride!! If you like adventures in the style of Indiana Jones, try this fast-paced adventure in search of buried treasure.
September 6, 2023
Entertaining adventure listening 🎶🔰
This novel is free on Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚!
This is a will written British 🏰👑 adventure thriller novel that begins in England with a crew being assembled to go in search of treasure. On a ship they travel to the Red Sea and it is here that the fun begins. They fight their way to the treasure with the two leaders killing one another. The treasure is found but the jewels are missing. The two youngsters get married and there is a happy ending. I would recommend this novel and author to 👍 readers of British 🏰👑 romantic relationships mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 👒😀💘😕
Louis Tracy is a British 🏰👑 author of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Happy reading 📚 and have fun 🌙😀
This novel is free on Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚!
This is a will written British 🏰👑 adventure thriller novel that begins in England with a crew being assembled to go in search of treasure. On a ship they travel to the Red Sea and it is here that the fun begins. They fight their way to the treasure with the two leaders killing one another. The treasure is found but the jewels are missing. The two youngsters get married and there is a happy ending. I would recommend this novel and author to 👍 readers of British 🏰👑 romantic relationships mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 👒😀💘😕
Louis Tracy is a British 🏰👑 author of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Happy reading 📚 and have fun 🌙😀
June 29, 2022
Disinherited Baron, takes a job as a second mate on an adventure that includes camel races, fights with Arabs, and a romance with a rich English Effendina. Old fashioned fun. I read a 1907 copyright edition.
June 8, 2026
A full-throated pulp adventure with all the hallmarks.
The hero, Richard Royson, is the heir presumptive to a baronetcy, though he is at odds with the current baronet, his uncle, and seems unlikely to inherit the wealthy estate along with the title. He is also out of work, having given a well-deserved thumping to the son of his employer for sexually harassing and/or assaulting a young woman in their employ. When he happens to be in the right place at the right time to stop a pair of bolting carriage horses and so save Irene, a beautiful young heiress, Irene's companion at the incident, a dodgy-seeming Austrian baron, gives him a job on a forthcoming expedition, funded by the heiress's grandfather.
The expedition's goal is to find some treasure cached by a Roman legion who had marched from Egypt to Saba (biblical Sheba) and looted it there, only to be ambushed by Nubians on their way back to the Nile and slaughtered to the last man - except for a Greek merchant, who managed to escape and write a papyrus giving the treasure's location. This document is now in the possession of the Austrian baron.
The expedition's funder is more interested in the archaeology than in the (to him, dubious) tale of treasure, to his credit, but he is the kind of person who will push on obsessively past obstacles - such as the fact that the location is in territory controlled by Italy, and an Italian enemy of the Austrian has convinced the Italian authorities to forbid the expedition to land anywhere other than a recognized port in their territory.
The hero is supposedly descended from Richard the Lionheart, and, like him, is larger than other men and a fierce fighter; there's a bit of semi-mystical nonsense about him feeling like he's been in Egypt before because his ancestor and namesake was. He's also a good sailor, which comes in handy on the voyage to Egypt and wins the respect of the comic sea-captain Stump. He's pretty much a standard pulp hero, in fact, able to learn Arabic quickly, fight a dozen men and win, and stay awake for 60 hours straight (involving strenuous desert travel) with no significant ill effects. Of course, he and Irene fall in love, even though he has no money (that he knows of) and she's the sole heiress to millions.
The ill-intentioned get comeuppance, the well-intentioned win rewards, and on the way we're treated to some good action scenes and, unfortunately, one of the most stilted scenes of romantic declaration I've ever read. Not that the dialog is particularly natural in general, but it grows even stiffer, to the point of being unintentionally comical, when Royson is having to talk about his feelings. The author also gives the standard speed of a camel at one point as being two and a half miles an hour, and then at a later point has an estimate of an hour and a half for camels to cover 10 miles.
There are some uncorrected scan issues in the Project Gutenberg edition, unfortunately, which I'll draw their attention to - they usually fix them quickly. Mostly the letter "i" rendered as a capital when it should be lowercase, but some misread letters too. Also, someone or something, either the author, an inept editor, or the scan process (or a combination), has inserted many commas where they should not be, such as before the main verb and after prepositions - the second one is a tic I've never encountered before, and I thought I'd seen most forms of comma abuse.
It's otherwise a solid pulp adventure, not one of the greats, but enjoyable, and the inevitable racism that comes with British people encountering Arabs and black Africans is kept to a low level for the time. Irene is appropriately intrepid, Royson is a decent, honourable man as well as a force of nature, and Captain Stump is amusing.
The hero, Richard Royson, is the heir presumptive to a baronetcy, though he is at odds with the current baronet, his uncle, and seems unlikely to inherit the wealthy estate along with the title. He is also out of work, having given a well-deserved thumping to the son of his employer for sexually harassing and/or assaulting a young woman in their employ. When he happens to be in the right place at the right time to stop a pair of bolting carriage horses and so save Irene, a beautiful young heiress, Irene's companion at the incident, a dodgy-seeming Austrian baron, gives him a job on a forthcoming expedition, funded by the heiress's grandfather.
The expedition's goal is to find some treasure cached by a Roman legion who had marched from Egypt to Saba (biblical Sheba) and looted it there, only to be ambushed by Nubians on their way back to the Nile and slaughtered to the last man - except for a Greek merchant, who managed to escape and write a papyrus giving the treasure's location. This document is now in the possession of the Austrian baron.
The expedition's funder is more interested in the archaeology than in the (to him, dubious) tale of treasure, to his credit, but he is the kind of person who will push on obsessively past obstacles - such as the fact that the location is in territory controlled by Italy, and an Italian enemy of the Austrian has convinced the Italian authorities to forbid the expedition to land anywhere other than a recognized port in their territory.
The hero is supposedly descended from Richard the Lionheart, and, like him, is larger than other men and a fierce fighter; there's a bit of semi-mystical nonsense about him feeling like he's been in Egypt before because his ancestor and namesake was. He's also a good sailor, which comes in handy on the voyage to Egypt and wins the respect of the comic sea-captain Stump. He's pretty much a standard pulp hero, in fact, able to learn Arabic quickly, fight a dozen men and win, and stay awake for 60 hours straight (involving strenuous desert travel) with no significant ill effects. Of course, he and Irene fall in love, even though he has no money (that he knows of) and she's the sole heiress to millions.
The ill-intentioned get comeuppance, the well-intentioned win rewards, and on the way we're treated to some good action scenes and, unfortunately, one of the most stilted scenes of romantic declaration I've ever read. Not that the dialog is particularly natural in general, but it grows even stiffer, to the point of being unintentionally comical, when Royson is having to talk about his feelings. The author also gives the standard speed of a camel at one point as being two and a half miles an hour, and then at a later point has an estimate of an hour and a half for camels to cover 10 miles.
There are some uncorrected scan issues in the Project Gutenberg edition, unfortunately, which I'll draw their attention to - they usually fix them quickly. Mostly the letter "i" rendered as a capital when it should be lowercase, but some misread letters too. Also, someone or something, either the author, an inept editor, or the scan process (or a combination), has inserted many commas where they should not be, such as before the main verb and after prepositions - the second one is a tic I've never encountered before, and I thought I'd seen most forms of comma abuse.
It's otherwise a solid pulp adventure, not one of the greats, but enjoyable, and the inevitable racism that comes with British people encountering Arabs and black Africans is kept to a low level for the time. Irene is appropriately intrepid, Royson is a decent, honourable man as well as a force of nature, and Captain Stump is amusing.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews