In his inaugural adventure, Elias Hackshaw, the wry and irascible editor of a small-town upstate New York weekly newspaper, finds himself reluctantly investigating the death of a local farmer. Hack’s half-hearted snooping soon leads him to unscrupulous land developers, then to an eccentric millionaire, angry Indians, and, finally, a scheme (his own) to use old Iroquois artifacts to “salt” an archeological dig—but only as a way to lure the killer out into the open, he assures us. Any personal gain on Hackshaw’s part is, ahem, strictly serendipitous.

Kate Sheriff, a young American woman, knew her calling was to move to India where she would dedicate herself to improving the condition of Indian women. In her ensuing struggle, Kipling presents east and west side by side and reveals the complex, often tangled nature of the two.