The Red Brotherhood

# Catalog Note

The Red Brotherhood; or, The Twelve Avengers by W. J. Hamilton features a family of traders fleeing the South Seas after Oscar Delisle kills a member of the "Red Dukites"—a secret brotherhood named after a venomous serpent believed to pursue its victim's slayer with relentless vengeance. Arriving in San Francisco, the Delisle family attempts escape, but Oscar's defiant message to their enemy ensures pursuit. The narrative follows Walter Delisle and a mysterious Californian hidalgo as Walter recounts their island ordeal: Oscar's shooting of a Dukite member, two rescue operations by Walter (preventing kidnapping and sea abduction), and the family's narrowly successful escape by sloop. Their journey inland to a California mining town called Tampa City sets the stage for continued conflict as the Red Dukite's symbol—a striking serpent—mysteriously arrives, confirming their pursuer has followed them across the ocean.