The Beadle's New York Dime Library: The Reckoning

About this issue

The Camp-Fire Library, December 1898, by Col. E.Z.C. Judson ("Ned Buntline"). This serialized adventure opens with the departure of a steamship from New York in winter. Among the passengers: the Irish wit Mr. Tyrone; the wealthy, ill-matched couple Mr. John Prime and his beautiful Spanish wife Donna Elementa (wedded to the elderly, miserly Frost); and the caustic Miss Priscilla Prime with her brother. Tyrone's charm and humor draw attention, while Donna's obvious unhappiness with her aged husband becomes apparent through telling glances. The narrative shifts to a desolate Arctic island between Greenland and Hudson's Strait, inhabited by the mysterious Walkallah, the "Ice-King"—a sixty-year-old man of commanding presence dwelling in a coal-rock cave dwelling with luxurious chambers. His residence includes both a carved-out hillside home and a palace of ice. Alone in his book-lined chamber, Walkallah contemplates portraits: one of himself in youth, another of a cold-featured lady. The story juxtaposes the steamship's voyage with this frozen northern mystery.