When Roger, Diana, Snubby and Barney go on holiday to Ring O' Bells village, they are eager to explore the secret passage in Ring O' Bells Hall. Is it really a dead end as they have been told, or does it follow the route marked on the old map they find?
When cousin Snubby and Great-Uncle Robert come to stay with the Lyntons, the children learn of a mysterious theft of valuable, historic papers from a locked room, and Snubby's imagination runs riot. But little do any of them know how close he is to the truth.
The holidays will be fun, think Roger and Diana, despite having to have extra lessons. Their cousin Snubby is staying with them, and they make a new friend called Barney. But when Barney disappears the children begin to worry about the strange behaviour of their new tutor.
Judge Crowdy Lobbett knew too much about the sinister Simister gang. So Simister had him followed wherever he went and tried to kill him. He followed him across America across the Atlantic to the heart of England to mystery mile where he encountered Albert Campion.
The challenge of an ancient riddle, a journey to a village accursed, and a corporate mogul in the business of murder prove the Pontisbright family legacy to be a deadly inheritance in this ingenious tale of witchcraft, myth, and mystery. The clues that lead to the solution and the heirlooms, however, do not elude urbane, erudite Albert Campion.
