High Road to China: Jon Cleary

In 1920, Eve Tozer, the attractive daughter of an American tycoon with huge trading interests in China, disembarked from a P. and O. liner at Tilbury. Hardly had she checked into the Savoy when a mysterious Oriental was announced. Her father, who she believed to be safe and sound in Shanghai had been kidnapped by a warlord. The ransom demanded was a priceless statuette Eve had in her possession. The closing date for the hand-over is eighteen days - and even the fastest liner sailing on the next day will not get her back to China in time. The only hope is to fly - in a day before airlines and airports. Eve, herself a qualified pilot, found a couple of ex-R.F.C. pilots on their uppers - they bought and equipped three Bristol two-seaters, evaded trouble in France and ran into it in Germany. Historical personages - Mao Tse Tung and Mustafa Kemal - play a part as do wild and strange characters from the Balkans, Waziristan and India.