When Roger and Jillian Shelford sailed secretly with Adam Dean from an English port about the year 1400, the Hanseatic League was a powerful, ruthless organization which rigidly controlled trade between European countires. The twins at first were too relieved at having escaped from crafty Uncle Thomas, who had tried to marry Jill to a hateful man merely to secure part of her inheritance, to care what Adam's business was. If Father had still been alive, all would have been different. He was a master stone mason who had been called to Norway to build a cathedral tower at Bergen, but word had finally reached England that he had been killed in a fall.

As Adam Dean's ship neared the Norwegian coast, it was pursued and almost captured by ships of the League, and then the twins discovered that Adam was one of the honest English merchants who smuggled goods between Norway and England and who refused to knuckle under to the tyranny of the Hanseatic League. Once in Norway, they found their father had not been killed, but had mysteriously vanished. Accompanied by Erik, a young Norwegian, they traced their father step by step, often in danger from members of the Hanse, who knew they were connected with Adam Dean.

With all the skill which we have come to expect from him, Geoffrey Trease unfolds his tale against the rich background of an exciting period. Joe Krush, who illustrated Mr. Trease's earlier books, Shadow of the Hawk and Trumpets in the West, has again made striking pictures which perfectly express the period.

From the dust jacket of the 1950 American edition by Harcourt, Brace and Company