[Illustration: Title page] DAREDEVIL BY LESLIE CHARTERIS The day that Captain Arden put on his steel waistcoat the menace of the Alpha Triangle was forever quelled. COPYRIGHT, 1929 BY LESLIE CHARTERIS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES _TO JERRY DOWMAN_ CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION TO STORM II. TITTLE-TATTLE OF MR. TEAL III. ADVANTAGES OF RESPECTABILITY IV. TALKING OF TRIANGLES V. BLAYTHWAYT ON CLUES VI. IMMIGRATION OF THE UNGODLY VII. ROBBERY OVER ARMS VIII. ANNOYANCE OF OSCAR IX. SPECIMENS OF JOURNALESE X. RETURN OF AN EXILE XI. EZRA SURCON DIGS XII. TOURS IN BILLINGSGATE XIII. INTEREST IN "H" XIV. EXASPERATION OF MR. TEAL XV. ONCE A GENTLEMAN XVI. SENSATION OUT OF COURT XVII. BIRDIE RECEIVES ORDERS XVIII. PESSIMISM OF MR. TEAL XIX. NCl3 XX. MECKLEN IS DISOBEDIENT XXI. FOUND DEAD XXII. STORM GOES GUNNING XXIII. PANIC OF BIRDIE XXIV. VISITORS FOR JOAN XXV. MAHOMET AND THE MOUNTAIN XXVI. SECONDS OUT OF THE RING XXVII. MR. TEAL BUTTS IN XXVIII. LAST ROUND XXIX. BREAK AWAY XXX. TIME! CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION TO STORM Probably Susan Hawthorne got a lot of her courage and independence from her father, old Smiler Hawthorne, who in his time had been nearly everything and nearly everywhere--a tall, grizzled man who was generally broke but always unbeatable. Anyway, wherever she got it from, she needed it all; for old Hawthorne crossed the Divide one night with the same reckless optimism as he had gone through life. He left her his name and thirty pounds, the rest of his fortune having disappeared only a week before, together with the promoter of a company whose sole asset was a diamond field wherein no diamonds were. And Susan Hawthorne faced a blank future with a smile that was reminiscent of old Smiler's cheeriest effort, which you only saw when things were very black and the proposition to be tackled was exceeding tough. He was that sort of man, and she was his daughter. She felt very much alone in the world. She had lost touch with her own friends in the accompanying of her father in his happy-go-lucky aimless globe-trotting; and most of the friends he had picked up himself--and they were legion--were scattered in odd corners of the earth. In any case, she was not one to look for charity. Wherefore she went to Lord Hannassay, because he seemed to be the only friend of her father's who was in England. She went with some trepidation, and was not unpleasantly surprised, and more than a little nervous, when she found that he was not so inaccessible as his name and position seemed to indicate. "I remember you--sixteen, weren't you?--queer kid--all eyes and legs. And your father?" He had a curiously disjointed manner of speaking, conveying the impression that his thoughts moved faster than his mouth could frame them. "My father died a month ago," she said. His grim face softened for a moment.