"You are my prisoners! I'm Willy Jones, the boy detective!"

"You are my prisoners! I'm Willy Jones, the boy detective!"
"You are my prisoners! I'm Willy Jones, the boy detective!"

"You are my prisoners! I'm Willy Jones, the boy detective!"

Date1919
Artist (American artist and illustrator, 1856–1943, born in England)
Illustration Citation"The Pirates' Lair," by Malcolm Douglas, in St. Nicholas, April 1919
MediumInk on illustration board
Dimensionssheet: 17 3/16 × 12 1/2 in. (43.7 × 31.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1987
Object number1987-132
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis is a dream sequence in which a little boy, about to overtake a group of treacherous and well-armed pirates, announces his presence. The illustration accompanies a poem that concludes:

A youth of twelve, indomitably brave,
Appeared and shouted, in stentorian tones:
"You are my prisoners! I'm Willy Jones,
the Boy Detective!" Rash, impuslive youth!
A boy against a hundred men, forsooth:
They would have finished him in one fell stroke!
But he was saved--thank goodness, he awoke!


London-born Reginald Birch had studied in San Francisco and in Europe when he settled in New York City in 1873. He became closely associated with the children's magazine St. Nicholas.
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