When Santiago Fell; Or, The War Adventures of Two Chums
1899
The year is 1898. Two young friends arrive in Santiago de Cuba expecting nothing more than a family reunion, and find themselves caught in the crossfire of a revolution about to ignite. Alano Guerez and Mark are American boys in a strange land, and the Spanish authorities see them as spies. What follows is a breathless chain of narrow escapes: imprisonment, a daring flight through jungle and mountain, and a desperate hunt for allies in a country where every stranger could be a betrayer. Stratemeyer writes with the propulsive energy of a man who knows exactly what his young readers want: not gentle lessons, but the raw thrill of outwitting enemies, the bonds forged in extremity, and the terrible beauty of war seen through innocent eyes. The boys endure because they must, because their families are somewhere in that burning island, because friendship and stubbornness are sometimes all that stands between survival and death. This is adventure fiction at its most direct: no preamble, no philosophical wandering, just two chums against an army.
