Beadle's Pocket Library No. 213: The Pirate's Prize

This issue of Beadle and Adams' dime novel series (Vol. XVII, No. 98, 1848) features "The Pirate's Prize; or, The Mysterious Yankee Schooner," a serialized adventure tale by C. D. Clark set in the Malay Seas. The story follows the rivalry between Captain Harry Castleton, master of the American merchant ship Tokio, and the mysterious Captain Manton over Ellen Darrel, daughter of a wealthy American tea merchant in Shanghai. When Castleton arranges passage for Ellen and her father aboard his ship, Manton—suspected of piratical connections—warns ominously of the notorious pirate the Black Shereef. Before departure, the eccentric American Saul Belton foils an attempted kidnapping of the party, rescuing them with assistance from two silent companions. The narrative establishes intrigue involving hidden vengeance and criminal intrigue as Castleton prepares to sail.