Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 5, 1921

"Pawned" by Frank L. Packard This serialized novel opens with two contrasting prologues establishing its dual narrative. The first, set on New York's East Side, depicts cabman Hawkins delivering his newborn daughter to pawnbroker Paul Veniza after his wife's death. Veniza proposes a bargain: he and his wife will raise the child, Claire, on condition that Hawkins redeem himself through personal reform. If he overcomes his "curse"—implied to be alcoholism—within years, he may reclaim his daughter and reveal his paternity. Hawkins agrees, then drowns his despair by drinking himself into oblivion that night. Twenty years later, the narrative shifts to tropical Apia, Samoa. A skilled white swimmer boards a mail steamer, evading the watch. Discovered by the mate, he fights back with extraordinary speed and power, knocking the mate unconscious before diving back into the ocean and swimming ashore unscathed. The identity connecting these prologues remains unrevealed.