Adventures of Leftenant Rundel

Leftenant Benjamin Rundel is faced with the battle for St Elmo Castle, which is thought to be impregnable, the surrender of Capua, a trying leftenant's exam for his friend Tom Murphy and the surrender of all of Roma to Captain Troubridge for a turn of the cards.

Then it's off to the Quiberon Bay disaster and success at Killala Bay against the French.

The Admiralty sends he and his friend Tom Murphy to Panama to capture a pack train loaded with gold headed for Spain.

After much confusion they get the gold, but end up with the mother ship aground with the gold aboard and a boatload of starving cannibals on shore to harry them.

Along the way he is instructed to capture the wife and sister of a noble of the Codrington family and has to decide how to cut out two older females from a Spanish captain's protection.

Then he returns to Barbados to quench the fires of a fire ship and heads out to find the perpetrator, only to wind up in a plot by an island plantation owner to ruin all of the local planters so he can purchase their lands cheaply.

Finally, as he heads for safety, his ship is captured by the French.

But he plays turnabout and takes a much larger French ship on his way to port.

There is never a dull moment in the life of this most able young leftenant.