Joseph W. Smiley

Seven Keys to Baldpate

A writer bets a publisher friend that he can write a 10,000-word novel in 24 hours. The publisher takes the bet, and gives him the "only key" to his Baldpate Inn, which has been closed for the winter, so he can write in complete seclusion. Things start heating up, though, when a succession of people who also have keys to the inn begin showing up.

The Wild Goose

While visiting New York, Ogden Fenn finds himself charmed with Diana Manners, wife of Frank Manners, an architect who is away on business in San Francisco, and they become involved. The husband returns unexpectedly and learns that his wife loves Fenn. When Diana and Fenn go to the latter's cabin near New York, Mrs. Hastings, who though married loves Frank, persuades him not to interfere because of the effects on his child. Mr. Hastings, learning of his wife's own infidelity, motors to the cabin, forces Fenn into his car, and drives the vehicle over a steep embankment.

Joan of Plattsburg

Joan, an earnest little orphan who lives in an asylum near the World War I training camp at Plattsburg, reads the story of "Joan of Arc" and soon imagines that she is the reincarnation of the peasant-soldier. As she sits in the cellar reading, she hears voices plotting against the government. She thinks the voices are from another world but they actually belong to a group of German spies. The agents plan to acquire the important invention of a young man named Ingleton, who is staying at the camp under the guardianship of Captain Lane. Joan relates this information to the captain, with whom she is in love, but he at first refuses to believe her. Later, however, he learns that the plot is real, and with Joan's help, he captures the spies.

Experience

Youth meets Ambition and leaves Love, his mother, and his small-town roots for the big city. There, in his search for Experience, he meets Pleasure and hangs out at the Primrose Path with the likes of Temptation and Intoxication. Back home, Youth's mother dies, and Love tries unsuccessfully to reach him. When Youth's money runs out his newfound friends all leave him and he sinks into a life of drug addiction, aided by Habit.

Broadway Jones

An arrogant young man leaves his Ohio home to make it big on Broadway in New York City when he inherits the family business and $1-million. However, things don't go quite according to his plans. After he blows most of the money, he returns to Ohio to try to sell the family business to raise more money, but complications ensue.

Heart of the Wilds

In the Canadian Northwest, Jen Galbraith lives in a tavern with her brother Val and her father Peter, a bootlegger who sells whiskey to the Indians. Val's friend Pierre resolves to win Jen, even though she is in love with Sergeant Tom Gellatly of the Mounted Police. When Val tries to retrieve some liquor sold illegally by the elder Galbraith to an Indian named Grey Cloud, the Indian insults Jen and Val shoots him. Tom is assigned to track down the murderer, but after he arrives at the tavern, Galbraith and Pierre drug him. Jen delivers the papers he is carrying to police headquarters, but when she discovers that they contain orders to arrest her brother, she shoots Tom to prevent him from going after Val.

Luck and Pluck

Professional thief Joe Grim is killing time in New York City's Central Park before he robs the Wall Street subtreasury. He spots pretty young Laura White on a runaway horse. He manages to rescue her. Falling for her, he tries to steal a photo of her but is discovered and held at gunpoint by Laura's friend Countess Briand--who, unbeknownst to Laura, is actually the head of a German spy ring, among whose members if Laura's fiance Karl Richter. The countess convinces Joe to steal plane for a new airplane by telling Joe that they're papers that are being used to blackmail Laura. But things don't go exactly as planned.

The Road to France

Tom Whitney, well connected but a social derelict because of his weakness for drink, is released from the draft because of an old football Injury, but a policeman persuades him that he can still do his bit in the shipyards. He takes a job in the yard owned by the man to whose daughter he was engaged in happier times. Three German propagandists seek to foment a strike to delay the work, and largely through Tom's efforts the plan goes amiss and the strike is called off. Rehabilitated by work, the launching of The Liberty is a forecast of his own rebirth.

Threads of Destiny

Ivan Mussak, the head of the Russian secret police, is responsible for the murders of thousands of Jews and the forced exile of thousands more. Isaac Gruenstein and his infant daughter Miriam are the only members of his family to survive one of Mussak's massacres, and Isaac is exiled to Siberia. Miriam, however, becomes Mussak's ward and is raised by nuns in a convent. Eighteen years later Isaac dies in Siberia, but before he does he writes a note to his daughter and gives it to fellow prisoner Rachel Shapiro, who manages to escape and, by chance, finds Miriam. However, circumstances have changed in the past 18 years--and Miriam is now Mussak's mistress.

A Daughter of Two Worlds