In his latest adventure Hector Lynch follows his quest for the young Spanish woman, Maria, with whom he has fallen in love. His search takes him and his friends on a nightmare passage around Cape Horn where they come across a small warship entombed on an icefloe, her only crew two skeletons'the captain, frozen to death in his cabin, and a dog. The corpse is the long-missing brother of a local Spanish governor in Peru. In gratitude for learning his brother's fate, the governor tells Hector that Maria has moved to the Ladrones, the Thief Islands, on the far side of the Pacific. On the way there, Hector's ship picks up an emaciated native fisherman adrift on a sinking boat. He dupes his rescuers into thinking that his home is rich in gold, but his poverty-stricken island proves to be jealously guarded by a Japanese warlord who treats the visitors as trespassers. Only when Jezreel, the ex-prize fighter, defeats the Japanese swordsman in a duel can they escape. Reaching the Thief Islands, Hector allies with the native people, the Chamorro, to launch a night raid on the Spanish fort and is finally reunited with Maria. But will the young couple ever be able to settle down? As a known sea robber, Hector will only be safe where the law cannot touch him'¦ and so their journey continues.