Devil in the Fog

Synopsis:

14-year-old George is the oldest of the 7 Treet children who, together with their father, are touring thespians, forever on the edge of poverty, but forever cheerful. Their lives are shadowed by the twice yearly arrival of “the Stranger” who hands Mr Treet a sum of money and disappears. When George is 14, the Stranger appears for the last time and Mr Treet reveals to George that he is the son of a nobleman, Sir John Dexter, and the family returns George to his father's home. When he arrives, there is some doubt as to his identity, but this is overcome and a fondness seems to grow up between Sir John and George. Sir John's black sheep brother is hiding out nearby, having escaped from Newgate, while George's cousins and aunt are housed with the Dexters. It is clear that somebody is trying to kill George, but the only obvious culprit, Richard Dexter (on account of the Dexter estate's being entailed) protests his innocence. Eventually it is revealed that George is Mr Treet's own son, and that the real George Dexter died young, but Sir John did not wish the estate to pass to his brother's family, and so invented the story of his son's abduction and later return. Sir John is killed trying to kill George, the estate passes to Richard, and the Treets are set up in London by the generosity of Sir John's widow.