Top Secret
Synopsis
Hawk Chudleigh is on a cargo ship bound for Queensland to take up a job as a civil engineer on a dam. One night, unable to sleep, he goes up to the deck and sleeps in a lifeboat with fellow passenger Walter Urquart. The ship strikes a mine and for several days they are adrift. Walter has been knocked out cold by the explosion so Hawk has plenty of time to muse about the Top Secret he is carrying, and his fears that there are enemies trying to obtain it.
They eventually meet land and finds what appears to be a holiday house on a small island. After about three days the elderly owners, Freda Penrose and her brother Phil, return. They prove to be very understanding and Hawk even entrusts Phil with some information about his Top Secret. Various members of the Penrose family arrive on the island, including Rex, who literally pays a flying visit.
Archie Penrose has overheard a conversation through which he has learnt that the enemy are planning to attack the island to get at the Top Secret. The next day, following a hurricane, they assist a struggling boat to land on the island and for a few days tend the injuries of those on the boat.
Suddenly they are ambushed by the men who they had helped. The men are armed and thus able to tie up the Hawk, Walter and the Penroses. Hawk is tortured, and Miss Penrose threatened with being blinded, as the men try to get the Top Secret from Hawk.
contributed by Moira Lovegrove, London __ working from a hardback edition
If you want to find out more, click on Spoilers
As the link suggests, it gives more of the story - without, of course
giving everything away!