The Oakdale Affair is a short contemporary mystery novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The incidents are assumed to be connected to other crimes, the assault and robbery of John Baggs and the murder of Reginald Paynter, who had been seen with two men and a girl.

The thief encounters another vagrant, Bridge, and the two take refuge from a storm in the deserted Squibb house, site of an old murder.

The two hobos pursuing the thief enter the house, find the body, and encounter the thing in the cellar.

After the thief's departure the Cases hear about the Baggs, Paynter and Prim mysteries from the local postman.

A car containing Burton, a private detective, and two others pulls up to the Squibb house, and Bridge, the thief and the woman flee into the woods.

The detective apprehends the hobos Bridge had driven from the Squibb house and gets their story, after which he arrests them as material witnesses.

He himself vanishes for a few minutes, supposedly in search of a notebook he says he lost; actually he has found the loot from the Baggs robbery, implicating his captives in that crime.

In the woods Bridge and his companions come across a cabin where Giova, a gypsy girl, is digging a grave.

But the group of hobos of whom Burton's captives were members has also learned their whereabouts, and plots to murder Bridge and the thief for the latter's loot and return the girl, whom they take for Abigail, to Prim for the reward.

Her story is confirmed when it is learned that the real Kid has turned up, fatally injured from crashing the car, and has confessed to murdering Paynter and shooting Hettie.

Bridge, who has deduced the truth about his companion, reveals that the "thief" is Abigail, and the possessions she "stole" are her own property.

In the end all is resolved satisfactorily Hettie takes on Giova as her maid, and Bridge and Abigail realize they have fallen in love with each other, which they seal with a kiss.