Poison Island

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch short stories, novels, criticism, and edited anthologies, including the "Oxford Book" series. He was Assistant Editor of the Liberal weekly "The Speaker," and from 1912 until his death was Professor of English at Cambridge University.

Writing under the pen name "Q," Sir Arthur produced a variety of work, including adventure stories, historical fiction, satire, stories of the supernatural, and mysteries. "Poison Island" is an adventure after Robert Louis Stevenson. Harry Brooks is sent at age fourteen by his widowed father for a classical education at Mr. Stimcoe's Academy for the Sons of Gentlemen.

Mr. Stimcoe is a drunk, and the school a travesty, but Harry meets the mysterious Captain Coffin. Coffin is building a ship to voyage to the Honduras, where he expects to find large amounts of gold, while avoiding the poison of the title. The Captain has a map, but is the treasure real, or a product of drunken imagination? Harry will find out.