This is an adventure novel that revolves around Eric Venable. Excerpt: Were this to be the tale, simply, of how Eric Venable fell and rose again from the depths, much might be said of his voyage to Tientsin River. It would bear much dwelling upon; it would in itself make, from the Horatio-Algerian viewpoint, an excellent moral tale. But it would delete all about Shinski and Marie, and the Shirvan diamond, and the burlap, -wrapped parcel; it would have to touch upon, Mrs. Ivanoff's pistol with discretion; and of course, it could say little about the poet Gerin's company of sh, shadows, or the devil Boris Kryalpin, or the ending of the Kum Chao.