The Dime Library, No. 1052

This 1880 serialized adventure, The Duke of Diamonds: The Flower of Calcutta by Captain Frederick Whittaker, opens with the execution by cannon of the deposed Rajah of Krishnapoor during the 1857 Indian Rebellion. The Resident attempts to extract a secret from the defiant rajah—mentioning someone named "Effie" and "the child"—but the rajah refuses, maintaining his composure even as he is tied to the gun. The narrative then shifts aboard the P. & O. steamship Benares bound from Bombay toward Suez, where passengers include the aristocratic Honorable Lorelia Lawton and her beautiful niece Helen, the "Flower of Calcutta." Among the admirers is an American, Clarence Hart, whose friendship with the Irish officer O'Shea is tested by witty exchanges. Hart observes threatening weather formations, predicting a typhoon before sunset.