The Golden Belt

This issue of *Beadle's Dime Novels* contains two serialized works of adventure fiction. The first is *The Moose Hunter* by John Neal (No. 72), advertised for the August 30 issue, set in the Maine woods and combining romance with winter hunting adventure, emphasizing New England character and regional superstitions. The featured story is *The Golden Belt; or, The Carib's Pledge*, beginning with "The Hunt"—a tropical adventure set in the province of Cahay. A young Spanish cavalier of mixed Moorish heritage hunts a fleeing hind across lush forests and savannahs with bloodhounds. The exhausted hind bounds into an Indian settlement where a beautiful young Indian woman in a hammock, adorned with gold, impulsively protects the dying animal as hounds close in—establishing the romantic and action-driven opening of this adventure narrative.