Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 230

# The Yankee Rajah; or, The Fate of the Black Shereef

This serial by C. Dunning Clark depicts a maritime adventure in the Malay Seas. The narrative opens in Shanghai where Captain Harry Castleton, master of the merchant ship Tokio, prepares to sail with Ellen Darrel (daughter of retiring American businessman Mr. Darrel) and her father. The mysterious Captain Manton, a rejected suitor who harbors revenge, confronts them on the Bund before an eccentric American Yankee named Saul Belton intervenes. Belton later reveals himself as part of a vigilante trio—including a tall silent American and a resolute Malay—united against wrongdoing. That night, kidnappers attempt to abduct Ellen, but Belton and his associates repel the attackers. Castleton, grateful, offers passage aboard the Tokio, unaware that Belton suspects the third mate, Will Wescott, may be an impostor connected to his vendetta. The narrative combines maritime adventure with mysteries of identity and hidden motives.