[crutledge]

Snell, Roy J. (Roy Judson), 1878-1959
Author of 76 mystery stories for boys. Born in Ladonia, Mo. In 1878, Snell moved to the Sycamore area and learned his father's trade of erecting windmills. He entered Wheaton academy after his 19th birthday, graduated, and then worked his way through Wheaton College, finishing with the class of 1906 In 1941, Snell wrote the network serial, "Jack Armstrong—The All American Boy." At the special request of his publisher, he wrote eight war novels for children.

Excerpt
As Johnny Thompson stood in the dark doorway of the gray stone court-yard he shivered. He was not cold, though this was Siberia—Vladivostok—and a late winter night. But he was excited.
Before him, slipping, sliding, rolling over and over on the hard packed snow of the narrow street, two men were gripped in a life and death struggle. They had been struggling thus for five minutes, each striving for the upper hand. The clock in the Greek Catholic church across the way told Johnny how long they had fought.