RED RASCALL

Lancer"" was the horse owned by Dana Terraine's father (see Show Me A Land) lost in the shipwreck off Chesapeake Bay, the horse that was to have saved the Terraine's their estate. ""Lancer"" is ""Red Rascall"", rescued by Lark Shannon, orphan girl and expert horsewoman, sailing on that same ill-fated ship. Lark, in turn, is rescued by a bound boy, Galt, but falls into the clutches first of an unsavory couple who run an inn of illrepute, then into the power of Matson, blackbirder and cheat, for whom Lark's protector, David, is lying low. Lots of adventures befall Lark and Galt before they find a home with buxom Minnie, toll house keeper near the Terraine plantation, now the property of the mean-spirited Plascutt. It takes a race, and Red Rascall winner, to precipitate a lawsuit for possession of the stallion; and that same law court shows Lark that it is Galt, not David, whom she loves. Adventure -- romance --plenty of lush trimmings, for an old-fashioned melodrama in picaresque tradition. An echo -- and not a very good one -- of Show Me A Land. But good rental library material.