Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1019

Burd Bayard's Close Call: In the Death-Net By Captain R.M. Hawthorne, serialized in this 1897 Beadle and Adams dime novel issue. A nautical adventure-mystery featuring Burd Bayard, captain of the schooner Albatross, who returns disguised to the Chesapeake Bay region after a four-year absence. He lands near Buzzard's Roost intending to investigate events at The Cedars, a colonial estate of the Haven family. Bayard learns Colonel Haven died six months prior during a reconciliation with his estranged daughter Muriel, who vanished afterward. Despite attempts at disguise, Bayard is recognized by both a servant named Pompey and family physician Doctor Hazeltine, who warns him to leave or face the gallows. Bayard continues to a nearby "Haunted House"—an abandoned brick mansion where, he suspects, answers to the mystery of The Cedars may await him.