The conclusion of the storyline in which the gangster, Nick Gatt, pays the ultimate sacrifice to save Annie from the designs of the communist Axel. Annie resumes her life with the lawyer and his wife who had semi-adopted her, and they take their small boat on a cruise. They are separated by a hurricane and Annie finds herself on her own again. Again, she is taken in by a kindly older couple, and befriended by a quiet mysterious man named Sam, the tailor, who is very much a Christlike figure in these pages. A theme of this book seems to be the power of forgiveness and redemption, as a couple of unsavory characters (especially Peter La Plata, who reaches new lows for Harold Gray's stories, yet is given a second chance by Daddy Warbucks, who sees a hidden spark of goodness in him). This collection is particularly moving; Gray may have been feeling something of the goodness possible within any man, and has done a masterful job bringing those emotions to light in the pages of an exciting storyline. Sam the tailor particularly intrigues me; I hope Gray brings him back from whatever mission he left on. ( )

Three excellent stories, one of which I'd read part of before (not the part that explained how they got there!). The first story is a direct continuation from the previous volume - Nick Gatt, the Tecums, and Axel. One nasty quite thoroughly dealt with, one...well, I can't call him an honest man, but a reasonably good-hearted one - down, and one good man thoroughly disgusted with politics and gangsters and the whole boiling. So Annie and her temporary parents sail away to find a little peace - and get separated in a tornado. Annie fades off as the tornado-struck town begins to recover enough to cast an odd eye on this strange little girl...and finds a(nother) place to live and to work, with a bit of minor heroism to start things off right. There's a lot of coincidence, a (yet another) mysterious man who won't give any details about who he was or is, some thoroughly bad eggs who turn to the light one way or another. A quite unconvincing romance - she never knew him, nobody knew him before he changed (he was "just a baby", probably younger than Billy). So he had nothing to go "back" to. A highly improbable sequence of events, even if it did make for a happy ending. Lots of attempts at sabotage and espionage, as well. Elegant segue into a new story, with a new villain - not even sabotage there, just plain old greed. An overall improbable survival in the depths of a mine - but each step makes sense, so - I guess so. I had, long ago, seen the strips with them on the raft and rising - nothing else, I don't think, neither how they got there nor what happened afterward (or maybe I just don't remember it). And a nice place to stop - one hint at the next step. The teaser strip is also familiar to me - I've read that story (though I don't remember anything about it). Looking forward to the next book! ( )