This issue of Beadle's Half-Dime Library (Vol. XL, No. 139, June 22, 1881) features the serial "Fire-Eye, the Sea Hyena; or, The Bride of a Buccaneer" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, a historical romance set during the piracy era.
The narrative begins with Ross Vashti, a wealthy man who has ruined the noble Greyhurst family and married their intended bride, Lady Lois Norman, through his fortune. Confronted in a ruined castle tower by a supernatural figure claiming to be Satan himself, Vashti is coerced into a pact: he will surrender his soul in eighteen years or face immediate damnation. Satan places a magical ring on Vashti's finger as proof of the compact.
The plot shifts to Captain Tudor Vashti aboard the king's armed yacht Lance on the Thames, where he orders the imprisonment of a young officer named Brandt Greyhurst (the ruined family's last heir) in the Tower of London. Ship's officers speculate about mysterious circumstances surrounding Greyhurst's desertion and their sudden return to England, suggesting deeper conspiracies at play.
About this artifact
- Date
- June 22, 1881
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by comicbooks.com.
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