""Will ye no come back again....?""

Richard Hannay returns to Strathallen, the village in Scotland where he was born and where he spent the first seven years of his life.

He meets Alison Ross, his childhood friend, who is now the village schoolmistress. She is engaged to Lord Malcolm Drysdale, an impoverished nobleman, who in an endeavour to meet crippling death duties, is selling some of the land belonging to his estate to a mining company who want the land for a colliery.

This act will cripple the community of Strathallen, which is comprised mainly of farmers. When they discover that Hannay is in fact a Mining Engineer he suddenly finds that he is not at all welcome, although this is pure coincidence, as Hannay is simply visiting the town of his birth.

Into this explosive atmosphere walks Logan, a troublemaker who is working for the Mining Company but who pretends that he is representing the farmers. Trouble occurs for Alison when it is discovered that Hannay is staying with her, al

The Under-Secretary Of State For War, Sir Greville Strickland is visiting Monte Carlo with his beautiful young wife, Lady Veronica. While Lady Veronica loses heavily at the gambling tables, Sir Greville is convincing the Baronne Di Castigliani, who is expected to be the new Head of Government in Italy, that it is in Italy's best interests to dump the Austro-Hungarian Alliance and Germany, and to join up with the new alliance between Great Britain, France and Russia, since war in Europe is expected to break out very soon.

The Baronne Di Castigliani is thoroughly convinced when Sir Greville tells him that Italy's defences will be strengthened by the introduction of a new weapon which is being tested in England, the Vickers Machine Gun. Unknown to Sir Greville is the fact that the sinister Count Von Schwabing and his Fellowship Of The Black Stone are lurking in the background, gathering intelligence and waiting to undermine the delicate negotiations between Great Britain and Italy.

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