When a playboy is abducted, the highly educated detective "reveals himself as a gun-fighter who can pump hot lead with the best of them" ( The New York Times ). Recently returned from a refreshing sojourn in Egypt and on his way out the door to enjoy a dog show, Philo Vance is stopped in his tracks by a visit from the New York district attorney. Notorious gambler and ne'er-do-well Kaspar Kenting has been kidnapped from his uptown home, and the culprits are demanding that the fifty-thousand-dollar ransom be left inside a hollow tree at midnight. But things don't go well—and the sophisticated and aristocratic detective is about to pick up a pistol and get down in the muck with some very unpleasant characters in this witty, suspenseful Golden Age mystery classic. "Mr. Van Dine's amateur detective is the most gentlemanly, and probably the most scholarly snooper in literature." — Chicago Daily Tribune