Traveling to Central America to inspect her real estate holdings, seventeen-year-old Vesper tries to stop a villain from building a canal which would destroy an Indian tribe's homeland. The indomitable Vesper Holly returns in this sequel to The Illyrian Adventure. This escapade begins when Vesper learns that she has inherited a large amount of land, including a volcano, in the wilds of Central America. She and her faithful guardian Brinnie journey to El Dorado to investigate, only to become involved in the struggle of a tribe of Indians to protect their homeland from unscrupulous developers who want to build a canal across the isthmus.
As always, Brinnie naively accepts things at face value, while Vesper sees through to the truth. The charming Alain de Rochefort turns out to be a henchman of the evil Dr. Helvitius; the disreputable Captain O'Hara and his scurvy crew are staunch freedom fighters and become Vesper's loyal allies; and the savage chief of the Chiricas has been educated at Cambridge and has brought to his people such civilizing influences as the game of cricket. There is also plenty of action and a number of cliff-hangers that create an episodic quality reminiscent of old Saturday matinee serials. All of the characters, even those who appear only briefly, are well fleshed-out, and there is a great deal of affection between Vesper and Brinnie.
South America