Three sevens : $b A detective story

"Three Sevens" by Perley Poore Sheehan is a detective novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Daniel Craig, a wrongly convicted inmate who stages a calculated prison takeover to correct injustices and then pledges to recapture the worst criminals set loose, while forging a fraught alliance with reformer Joan Gracie. Mixing prison-break tension with manhunt and moral inquiry, it sets up a high-stakes redemption quest on both sides of the law. The opening of the novel plunges into San Pedro Prison, where Craig, isolated in “solitary,” receives a cat wearing a collar of hidden saws—Chi Slim’s legacy—and cuts his way out. With the help of seasoned inmate Eddie the Yegg, he disarms guards, seizes the prison, convenes a jury of convicts, and begins paroling men he deems reformed, until a riot erupts when a mob tries to seize a mysterious young woman—Joan Gracie, daughter of the incoming reform warden. Craig shields her, is wounded, and retreats to the offices where Joan tends him; together they learn escaped felons have already robbed a train and shot travelers, and they compile a “little red ledger” of the most dangerous fugitives Craig must return. Resolute, Craig slips into the night with an oath to make amends, recruiting the loyal George Washington as his deputy, while Joan holds the fort and her father’s special train arrives to reassert lawful control.