In this comic masterpiece, eleven-year-old Lucius Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, a family retainer, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The Priests' black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them embark on a heroic odyssey for which none of them is prepared. They wind up at Miss Reba's Memphis bordello, and from there wild misadventures ensue- involving horse smuggling, trainmen, sheriff's deputies, and jail