Beadle's Dime Novels No. 113: Rattlepate

About this issue

Rattlepate; or, The Missing Deed by Scott R. Sherwood begins this 1866 Beadle's Dime Novel (No. 113). Set in colonial New York approximately seventy years before the Revolution, the story opens at The Leopard, a remote tavern three miles from the city. A mysterious traveler—who calls himself "The Nabob," a seafaring merchant—arrives on a stormy night and questions the innkeeper Christern Gumpert about the wealthy Mynheer Vonderspeight and the nearby Red House. Gumpert reveals that Vonderspeight, once a poor clerk under Captain Albert Mery, became rich and acquired the Mery estate after the family's misfortunes: the elder Mery died, and his dissolute son Frank abandoned the colony after betraying a young woman and killing her brother in a duel. The Nabob listens intently, seemingly connected to these past events, while a grieving young gentleman named Oscar Fleming writes at another table. The issue also advertises "Ned Starling: The Marauder's Island" by Edward Willett for the next issue.